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Espace Automatic Fault


wales34part
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My x reg espace 2.0 16v automatic has developed a fault.

We do have it booked in at the dealers but they cant look at it for 2 weeks, so as yet it hasnt been on the clip diagnostic machine.

The symptoms are after about 5-10 minutes of driving and with speeds in excess of 40mph the gearbox will suddenly and dramatically drop into safe mode(i think second ratio).

Obviously if your doing 70mph this is violent and scarey to say the least. This is following by a beep, a warning icon that looks like "WW" and then a message saying "service"

The changes up an down when cold are smooth and progressive but soon before the fault occurs changes become much more jerky. particularly going down the box

Turning the engine off and restarting resets the fault but only for a short period.

I believe my gearbox is the sealed type so diy is not easy.

In my research i have read that this fault may be due to many reasons ranging from a gearbox leak to faulty sensor / selector to dirty maf sensor.

The car was running well before we recently had new brake disks all round and new exhaust including cat and lambda sensor. As the fault only occurrs when the car is up to temperature could this work have anything to do with it ie does it need an ecu reset after this type of work.

I fear the worst but i will be insisting on seeing the clip readout before instructing any work.

Any thoughts opinions would be most welcome

Also can anyone shed any light on how to access the air filter on this car. Its a pig to get too as it is behind the engine block sandwiched against the bulkhead. I took off what i think is an air expansion box leading to the filter case and it looked a bit dirty inside so i'm interested to see how the filter looks as the car was only serviced a few thousand miles ago.

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Hey mate, welcome to TSN.

I had an RTX Auto 2.0L which I believe shares the same box. Mine presented the same fault after 78k. Dealer told me that the Box would need restoring and some major work which meant an extortionate price. I took the car to an independent Auto gearbox specialist and they IMMEDIATELY diagnosed that it was a specific cable that had corroded and needed replacing. They wrote down the fault code and part number required, which I then took to dealer.

Part was ordered and work done in a few hours the following day at a cost of £90 ish. We have had exactly the same issue with the wife's Omega, its a simple cable replacement job.

For some reason, when this gets damaged, worn or corroded, the box shifts back in emergency mode (2nd) with a sudeen jolt. Nothing wrong with box at all. If you can, try and get the car to an Independent Auto gearbox place who will diagnose the fault, with fault ode and will be able to give you the replacement part details.

Hope this helps. 169144-ok.gif

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Not the code unfortunately, but I can tell you that it was a cable that holds the sensor. And this was the case on both the Espace and Omega. Cable is roughly a foot long. The fault would happen once the engine was warm and I had driven say 5 miles or so, hit 70, expect box to shift up a gear but it would knock back suddenly into 2nd. Ie, safety mode. Also, I noticed that the fault would trigger if I engaged the over-ride (or sports mode).

Must say I was a bit taken back with Renault's initial advice, and they had not even seen the car, they were basing their diagnosis on the information I had given them. The company that did the diagnosis and issued me with the fault code was a 3D Transmissions, not sure if they are nationwide or not.

I would deffo get it checked out with an independent auto-gearbox place, their knowledge literally saved me 4 figures. I was lucky in that the fault triggered only a few miles from where they are located, so it was fresh in the system and easily diagnosed

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default mode will actually drop you into 3rd gear on Renault Auto boxes!

i don't know why they won't help you out? a clip test should only take half an hour or less! any decent dealership would get you in for diagnosis before booking you in for a repair to make sure that any parts needed were available to do on that day! to have to wait for parts even when booked in is plain retarded suicide.gif

try another dealer or even look for a decent independent specialist wink.gif

most problems with those transmissions are either valve block related or one of the main contol solenoids (much cheaper to replace) if it is a mechanical fault iside the box, slipper clutch etc the parts to repair are not sent to dealers so don't be surprised if they say you need a new/exchange box!

a "decent" specialist would be able to repair rather than replace so should be cheaper in the long run wink.gif

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Well i have the answer and it isnt good

Fault code was g4

I'm told it is the hydraulic distributor that has a fault causing oil pressure fault in the box.

Total bill £680!!!

The distributor box alone is £400. As the ECU has to have a reprogamme i think i'm pretty stuck particularly as my nearest auto gearbox specialist is 75 miles away - ah the pleasures of rural life frown.gif

Mechanic suggested that this whilst not common had been seen before many times. Think i'll have a word with Renault as my car has only done 45k miles

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that fault code doesn't mean anything to me i'm afraid smashfreakB.gif

but i did warn it was most likely to be the valve block/distributor at fault! shame it wasn't one of the easy to replace solenoid valves that are now available seperately dung.gif

at least they never tried rolling you over & selling you a gearbox 169144-ok.gif

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  • 3 weeks later...

Update

I have eventually had the car in at the dealers and i was hoping to bring good news. However when the car was handed back to me the head mechanic kindly told me that everything was running well however as a precaution he had tied some elastic bands yep you heard right, elestic bands, around a plastic connector that is attached the the gearbox selector cable as it was showing some signs of wear. putting 1 and 1 together and given that the job took them 6 hours to complete rather than the 3.5 scheduled time i suspect that the fault may have been due to the cable as first advised on here..

To make matters worse the following day the car jumped into neutral albeit with no fault icon showing. Turning off and restarting solved it.

I've decided i'm going to get these bands wherever they are (help much appreciated) cut off and if my old fault remains get my money back and get the cable replaced elsewhere.

I suspect thay the carried out the repair and found the box still to be faulty and botched the cable to effect a temp cure.

Will keep you posted

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  • 2 months later...

I've Renault Laguna 99 with 8v 2.o-petrol and auto gearbox DP0. The problem is: safety mode is switching only when engine is cold. When engine is warm everything is OK.

Renault dealer said: Only new Gearbox (1000pounds)

Which cabel could be wrong? Between gearbox and ECU or ECU and something else?

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the elastic bands described sound like they are being used to hold the gear selector cable/rod end onto the lever that sticks out of the top of the gearbox! this selector cable is more of a bendy rod than a cable & is used to shift the box beween P R N D etc all the regular shifting is taken care of by the valveblock & gearbox internals sekret.gif

JohnyMpl

you should have asked your dealer to give you a printout of the "clip test" on your gearbox & also to explain what the fault codes indicated actually refer to!

you'd be surprised how many people don't actually understand the results of a clip test ("clip" is Renaults laptop based diagnostic tool) as more often than not it is just a fault with 1 of the solenoid control valves & these are now available seperately for around £60-80 (plus fitting) which is a LOT cheaper than having the whole gearbox changed & still a fair bit cheaper than having the Hydraulic distributor changed! (this valve fits in the ear of the distributor) wink.gif

i'm not saying they are trying to con you, but incorrect diagnosis/inability to interpret results could end up costing you a lot of unnecessary expenditure smashfreakB.gif

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