Unreliable gear selection issue when stationary.

[striplar]

I have a 120K mile 451 with a gear selection issue that only happens when the car is at rest. It never misses a gear or does anything odd in normal driving, which is usually done in full auto.

However, when the car is stationary and I move the gear selector over to the left, it often remains in neutral. If I push the lever forward, it often stays in Neutral, and the same thing happens if I try to select reverse. Moving the lever between selecting first and reverse doesn't seem to clear the issue, but pressing the button on the lever to select Auto does seem to get it going again.

Has anyone experienced this issue. It's been like this for months now, not getting any better or worse. Sometimes I put it straight into reverse and it's fine. Other times I have to select auto, then first then reverse to get it into reverse.

There are no codes, and I've taken the Gear Selector motor assembly out and cleaned the comutators but it made no difference. I've replaced the Clutch actuator recently, and that didn't help either.

Could this be a broken cable, an issue with the Auto button or something to do with the selector electronics?

Any help would be much appreciated.

[Mr T]

Hi striplar, not many people on the forums anymore.

I remember on the older 450 Smarts this fault was caused by a defective brake light switch. The switch has two sets of contacts, one for the brake lights & the other to tell the ECU you have your foot on the brake & it's safe to select a gear.

Don't be fooled if the brake lights work, because the other contacts might not!

I don't know if the 451 is the same?

Hope this might help.

BTW have you looked on www.evilution.co.uk