Gear shifting issues again

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Permalink Reply by Ian Pellant on December 9, 2009 at 5:51am

Only guessing...

The problem may be with the actuator. It seems that an electronic adjustment can be made and that may fix the problem for a while. But if the problem is in the actuator, then the solution may be to adjust it mechanically, or give it a good clean out.

See Evilution article: http://www.evilution.co.uk/index.php?id=533

There's a good explanation of how it works and what can go wrong when muck gets into it.

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Permalink Reply by Marc L on December 9, 2009 at 7:00pm

Ian,

You are right on the nose. I had the car fixed last week. They replaced the actuator. I was just 2500 km from my 80,000km warranty so it didn't cost me a penny even though it would have cost about $1,500 Canadian inclusing labour and taxes. If i had been over the 80,000km it would have been a real fight as the problem should have been fixed last March. They tell me that the computer readout was not telling them to replace the part but they did anyway because the problem had reaccured. It would have been a realy safety issue if I had been at an intersection needing to get out of oncoming traffic. I can choose to purchase an extended 40,000 km warranty for $1,500.00 Canadian. With the km I travel every day it wouldn't last me for more than 9 months. I will take a chance. If something major happens again I will loose faith in the smart technology BIG TIME. I've been told many times never to purchase a car within it's first year of release. I'm starting to beleive that this is true.
Shame on smart for all the troubles I've had with this car from the start. First the shirt gear locked on me as with many other smart users. Then the engine light kept coming on. They were to fix the problem just before a long road trip, then during my trip, the engine light came on again for the same issue. I'm not certain what the problem was. The headlights are forever needing replacment because they burn out so fast. My gas cap needed to be replaced as it was faulty. Boy, I'm a real smartcar fan but there is a limit to everything. I'm starting to think that I've got myself a real LEMON! Maybe I should have purchased a yellow car instead of a blue one.

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Permalink Reply by Ian Pellant 13 hours ago

80,000 km is a lot... I've done about 17,000 km in 14 months on the smart. smart Australia warranty is 3 years, unlimited kms.

smart cars perhaps are too smart for their own good. Service centres expect the car to report mechanical failures; but they do so only when they are outside expected sensor readings. The clutch actuator is one such device.

There are some odd things on the smart that come down to the computers and electronic controls and how they interact. My yellow terror worked perfectly until around 11k km / 11 months and the battery went almost flat - caused by the battery connections never being tightened up pre-delivery. Fixed that, then had annoying cold start problems. Leave the smart for over 8 hours and it was very touch and go trying to start it. The smart service centre diagnosed a faulty crankshaft positioning sensor - had that replaced, but the starting problems persisted. After 2 months the problem began to clear after trying every silly idea I could think of every morning. I suspect the problem was related to a pressure or positioning sensor in the brake circuit. By pressing the brake pedal hard (ignition On) before starting, it started first time. Verrry weirrd. I have many hypotheses on that one. (ABS / transmission state / immobiliser, etc).

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Permalink Reply by Marc L 12 hours ago

Wow, unlimited km, I could certainly make use of that warranty.
I travel 65 km to and from work. That's a minimum of 130 km per day. They market the smart as a city car but I just love driving it on roads with 80km spead limits. The drive on our highways with 100km spead limits is ok but you certainly feel the wind with so many transport trucks.

It's too bad that you have also had your trials with the not so smart technology.
I hope that all these problems find their way back to the manufacturer and that the more recent smart customers can avoid these issues.

I also hope that they bring a diesel version to North America. My partner recently purchased a VW Jetta TDI and it has basically the same fuel efficiency as the smart. The VW Golf TDI has just been reintroduced to Canada for 2010 models. smart better keep on top of things in the next few years because they are going to have much more competition for smaller vehicles in the near future. One thing is for certain though, the look of the smart is unique and the quality of the materials used in the interior design of the car can't be beat. The Jetta is basicaly a very ordinary looking car with very little 'wow' factor.

Thanks again for all your input and help with my issues. I hope that more people contribute to post their issues with the smart so that if there are problems that are out there that seem to stump the mechanics, we can at least help somewhat. Good luck with your smart and here's hoping that if any problems do come up, they will occure within your warranty period.

Marc Ladouceur
Ontario Canada

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