hi all,
this seems to be a growing concern to "smarties", this mysterious shifter failure that disables the vehicle. i have had my smart for over 5 months without any problems (knock on plastic!) i am curious when your smart was made that has this failure.
it seems that penski/mercedes/smart should issue a "recall" to fix this problem, rather than wait until we are found on the road or in a parking lot DEAD! i have heard this occurring as early as 350km (canada). i have logged over 3800 miles with no problems, but i have no second vehicle and i'd rather have smart fix it now before it fails and i'm stranded god knows where.
my manufacture date is 12/07
this seems to be a growing concern to "smarties", this mysterious shifter failure that disables the vehicle. i have had my smart for over 5 months without any problems (knock on plastic!) i am curious when your smart was made that has this failure.
it seems that penski/mercedes/smart should issue a "recall" to fix this problem, rather than wait until we are found on the road or in a parking lot DEAD! i have heard this occurring as early as 350km (canada). i have logged over 3800 miles with no problems, but i have no second vehicle and i'd rather have smart fix it now before it fails and i'm stranded god knows where.
my manufacture date is 12/07
Replies to This Discussion
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12.07 here and no prob!
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same here. my shifter button is like new. maybe we got them before the shifter-lube person went on vacation. since some of these "lock-ups" occur at 220 miles from new on some smarts. the inside of my smart has been over 100F the last week, and i know yours is even hotter. maybe we're the lucky ones!
i was sitting there today at 90F, playing with my shifter, the shifter button works with minimum effort.
(maybe get a can of silicon lube and keep it under the seat "just in case", from what i hear, you can shoot it in at the top of the shifter button and do the "fix") that's the troubling thing. we've been driving 6 months, no problem and some people lock-up in a week or month.
we'll just keep "knockin' on plastic", seems our '07 smarts were made "right".
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When I had my problem fixed they told me all they did was a lube job on the shifter even though they had earlier told me that they had to order the part from Toronto. What to beleive?
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Permalink Reply by Chris R on -
Mine had the same trouble stuck in gear and also once when it wouldn;t engage in drive, the car just wouldn't move. The dealer said that the had to adjust the clutch actuator???? WTF is that
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hope you have another smart dealer close by. these clowns aren't that "smart",
clutch actuator? no, it's the shifter! dummy!!! it's a simple linkage disorder. you
can fix it in 5 minutes by yourself, in your leasure.
my smart dealer admitted to this defect and would service mine for free, if i brought
it in. R/T to my dealer is like 70 miles. i'd prefer the replacemnent shifter. my shifter is loose as a goose after 6 months and 4200 miles. me and SATO have 12/07 smarts with no problems (knock on plastic!)
just trying to get a "window" on failures. if people would post their manufacture dates with their failures. but few do that.
no, my car broke on such a date! duh! when the hell was it made?!?!?!?!?!
trying to get some TRACEABILITY!!!! hello!!!!!
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Old thread; fresh input.
The USA and Canada get a gear shift that is not smart "normal"... let me illustrate: in the USA with a manual transmission car, you have to push in the clutch pedal to start. This is north America only. The rest of the world doesn't do this.
On the Aussie smart, we don't get the P and D options. So part of your woes is that smart modified the standard for the north American market.
However, there is a weird behaviour that maybe, just maybe, you have inherited. It has caught me out before I understood it. If I put the transmission into "N" when stopped and leave it there more than 3 seconds without holding down the foot brake and then slip back into a drive or R position, the tranny will stay in N. It's all part of the hill assist start paradigm and the safety concept of not moving the car into gear when not pressing down on the brake.
The button on the left side of the gear shift is not a lock button as on the US model. It is the optional "softouch" button that changes from manual to auto shift... yep... the first few days, I was confused too!
The lesson is: if the gear shift is not operating as expected: press the foot brake.
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oh well, it finally happened to me a few minutes ago, went out to go to work, it was -2F (-18C) the smart started right up, i let it idle for a couple minutes then tried to shift... STUCK!!!!! 11 months after day of delivery to the day with just over 7000 miles on the clock! manufacture date 12/07
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Sorry to hear of your stuck smart. Hope you have AAA? Please let us know of the fix by smart and your service experience. Good Luck and have some hot chocolate for me. It's 80 today here at Disney.
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smart has a 2 year 24,000 mile warranty, i got 13 months and 17000 miles left. i could fix it myself, silicon spray, 2 minutes, but smart has a tranny upgrade/fix for this, i don't know if my dealer has it in stock, but they fixed 6 smarts with this problem by last july. i'm taking the day off, 3 day weekend for me. i'll call smart in the morning.
i'm having cold millers now... funny thing, i processed a few checks by mike eisner this week, he runs disney, he's out in LA though.
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