05 Colt Automatic Shudders in 1st gear

seanmacc

Was wondering weather anyone here would know about this or not.

I've a 2005 Mitsubishi Colt 1.3 Automatic (tripronic). A couple of weeks ago I had an incident where I was pulling out of a parking space and the car started shuddering forward. In my immediate need to get home I ignored it and made it shudder forwards until I cleared the spot and I hit second and the problem went away. 3 days ago the problem repeated itself as I pulled out of my driveway.

Today a different problem happened when pulling out of a car park and the gear selector screen went blank and the engine cut out. I had to wait about a minute before the car would start again.

Does anyone have experience with this? Is my transmission about to pack in and cost me thousands or should I just put it down to a couple of isolated incidents? I've never had a days bother with the car apart from two years ago when I had to get the ECU reset because one of the sensors froze in the snow.

mullingar

For the first problem, it might be a solenoid (electronic valve) inside the gearbox as its isolated to 1st gear.

No idea on the second fault, but could be related if the solenoid is electrically shorting.

Nissan doctor

It definatly sounds like an electronic problem rather then a mechanical one, ie, gearbox.

kerten

Unless it is a japanese import, I think this box is a manual gearbox with a automatic clutch system like in Opels and Fords.

If you see issues in dash, it is likely to be related with electronic control unit that manages clutch and gear changes. But I would check battery first. A bad battery can cause strange behavior in electronics sometimes.

Next would be checking if diagnostics shows any error message related to box or sensors.

I think these systems are prone to premature clutch worn if you do many hill starts without using handbrake. So I would check clutch if it is worn or not as well.

seanmacc

Cheers lads.

Instances have become slightly more regular now. It died in the driveway in 1st gear the other day taking two mins before I could start it again. It died in tesco's car park yesterday causing gridlock whilst I got it going again after 10 mins. Did a good bit of driving today without an incident.

I'm bringing it down to my mates tomorrow to plug it in and run a diagnostic. Hopefully a reset of the software or clearing of error messages might do it.
It may be a battery issue alright. The original battery is in the car and I'd imagine with that gearbox, it's heavy on the battery.
A mate of mine who has an evo with the same type of gear box gave someone a jump start one day and it bunched the ECU's software altogether and costing him a few quid for playing good Samaritan.
I hope my mates diagnostic software can do it. The nearest mitsubishi dealer to me is an out and out cowboy, incompetent muppet. The other two dealers are a bit of a hike away from me

seanmacc

Problem sorted!

I didn't even go down the road of my mates computer to sort the ECU.

All I did (read it online) was unplug the negative cable in the battery, left the car sit half an hour and the ECU reset to factory defaults. So far no issues. Although I did test my battery and it seems to be good. I'm hoping this will be the end of it and there wasn't an underlying issue there that caused it in the first place.

seanmacc

Sorry for the bump. Just want to show how the problem may of been eventually solved.

After unplugging the battery a couple of weeks ago the car worked fine for a few days. Unplugging the battery reset the ECU and I thought I was doing grand. After the few days the problem reappeared. The shudder happened in 1st gear as well as reverse and the gear changes were slow and not at all smooth. I got a mate of mine from a Nissan garage to plug in a Diagnostic computer which returned the error code P1170, a code he couldn't make head nor tail of so he refered me to a reputabile Mitubishi garage (There is one I delt with previously that were out and out cowboys) for a software update hoping that should do it. The Garage then updated the software and said the error code was down to the clutch actuator. They tested the car after the update and had no problems and charged me 90euro. I drove around with no issues then for about a week until the shudder reappeared again same as before. I got it back to the garage and they recommended I replace the actuator at this point.

In fairness to the garage, they didn't charge me for looking at it the second time. A clutch actuator came to about 413euro from Mitsubishi Ireland, the mechanic was shocked when he saw how much it was. I told him to hold off ordering and made a few calls to dealerships over the boarder and in Wales. A dealership in Wales 25 mins drive from Holyhead could get it for 220 sterling inc Vat which worked out at 250euro. I duly jumped on the ferry in the car for a round trip (This only works out cheaper because I work for a ferry company). The Mitsubuishi mechanic is due to fit it Monday and I hope it'll be the end of it.

The clutch itself seems to be fine its the actuator that engages and releases the clutch that seems to be the issue. Neither the Mitsubishi garages in Dublin or Wales ever heard of an issue with actuators on the Colt before. I will be asking for the old part back for my own examination.