Ford Scorpio Forum - Print Page


    
      
        Ford Scorpio Forum
        (https://www.fordscorpio.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl)
      

        General >> Problems >> auto gearstick
        
(Message started by: frankcwood on Sep 26^th, 2004, 11:49am)

Title: auto gearstick
Post by frankcwood on Sep 26^th, 2004, 11:49am

The car keeps going to overdrive when on the motorway. I have noticed it does so after the car has warmed up. After some time the overdrive light flashes.If I touch the overdrive button on the gearstick the car jerks.I suspect that I have a problem with the overdrive wiring to the button in the gearstick.How can I remove the gearstick wiring?(2litre 16 valve 1995 model)

Title: Re: auto gearstick
Post by Richard on Sep 26^th, 2004, 11:51am

First things first, Have you checked the fluid level ?.

Title: Re: auto gearstick
Post by scorpio_man on Sep 26^th, 2004, 11:54am

hi there

Quote:

The car keeps going to overdrive when on the motorway

what do you mean? the car should go into o/d at about 50mph. have you cleaned your MAF? see http://www.fordscorpio.co.uk/cleanmaf.htm

do this first (if you haven't already), and see how this goes.

Title: Re: auto gearstick
Post by frankcwood on Sep 27^th, 2004, 11:57am

I am not a mechanic so this may sound daft. I have checked the dipsticks, as I look at the car from the front the one on the right is midway , the one on the left is full. I may have not descibed the problem correctly by calling it overdrive. I mean that that the car changes down from 4th to 3rd on motorway travel, as if it was climbing a hill.I have cleaned the maf, there was no difference

Title: Re: auto gearstick
Post by ron_c on Sep 27^th, 2004, 1:44pm

This all sounds too familiar. Please do not try anything drastic and listen to the sages.

To put your mid at rest a little, the OD switch and light can be confusing under fault conditions and the jerk that you are getting is probably because you are still in OD but loss of engine braking means the revs are out of sync and when you operate the switch it grabs at 3rd gear. It alarmed me when it first occured on mine.

You can, with practice, learn to live with the problem but it would be better to fix it if possible. I am currently trying to fix mine by proving what is wrong before adopting a 'change it an see if it fixes it' approach, sadly without much success.

You will learn much by by reading all that has been written on these pages already and, as mine is still faulty after 10,000 miles, I am probably the last who should give advice. Rest assured, a solution does exist and it will almost certainly not require removing the gear stick. If you would like to make sense of your symptoms, as a long term sufferer, I should be happy to help and exchane ideas if the standard fixes don't seem to work.

Good luck,

Ron.

Title: Re: auto gearstick
Post by frankcwood on Sep 28^th, 2004, 8:41pm

hi ron, thanks for your advice. I am not sure it is the same poblem. When i say it changes to third i mean that it changes and stays in third for ages. It will change back into fourth if the car starts going downhill or if there is a following wind, but any incline, or sometimes on the flat it stays in third. cheers anyway

Title: Re: auto gearstick
Post by ron_c on Sep 28^th, 2004, 8:59pm

Hi Frank,

Actually, it sounds exactly the same and, as far as I can tell, there are a lot out there who have had the same problem, or very similar. In most cases, cleaning the MAF fixes it but you have to be very thorough and careful. The symptoms that I described are only part of the story and it takes a while to actually appreciate what is happening.

I believe that, for some unknown reason, the control system cannot lock 4th gear and it starts to slip. It eventually feels as if it is in 3rd but it is not the same as when you hold it with the OD switch. after a while the OD light comes on to indicate a fault and then you have no easy way of knowing where the OD switch is set. The clue is that if you release the throttle, you loose engine braking which indicates normal??? setting. In this condition if you touch the OD switch you will get a jerk as it engages 3rd.

Try stopping, switch off and restart. This resets the OD warning and things may look and feel normal for a while, depending on the severity of the problem.

I am an expert on the problem. It's fixing it that I haven't got around to, but I am working on it. In the meantime, no-one else wants to drive it so I guess I' m stuck with it!

I'm off on a long journey soon with a newly aquired diagnostic tool so I hope to have some clues in a day or so.

Ron

Title: Re: auto gearstick
Post by frankcwood on Sep 29^th, 2004, 8:17am

hi Ron, yes we are in the same boat- unfortunately I can't row . I have another Scorpio with it,s own 'characteristics', thats why I said I would swap the gearstick, presumably you haven't located the source of the problem so there is nothing I can just excange? Thanks for your advice, i would be grateful if you have any solution in the future, Frank

Title: Re: auto gearstick
Post by ron_c on Sep 29^th, 2004, 11:01pm

Hi Frank,

Just another quick thought. Have you tried running it with the MAF disconnected? The tickover is pretty rough and so are the changes but if you are on the motorway you can live with it. It should now hold gear and hopefully suggest that the MAF is faulty. If the gears feel too bad, try starting in 2nd and you'll only have 2 rough changes before reaching cruising speed. You'll also notice that the fuel consumption drops to 27/28 ish at legal or near legal speeds.

I find that, if I detect the problem soon enough and switch to hold 3rd for a while, the problem goes away temporarily. Also, depending on driving conditions, using sports mode can delay the onset.

If you have another identical car, exchanging the MAFs would probably prove something. It doesn't seem anywhere near as critical on manuals.

Enough waffle, I'll let you know if I ever fix mine but I'm committed to doing ot the hard way. Perhaps I shoul just be commtted...

Ron.