wont change gear

95Liberty · Post by **95Liberty** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 8:35 pm

Today my brother was driving my car and he bumped the hold switch. When he switched it back, it wouldn't change up or down properly. When I got home and took it for a drive, I couldn't get it to change at all apart from a couple of times.Even selecting the gears manually didn't make any difference. Does any one know what might be going on ?

Post by **TOONGA** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 8:47 pm

it could be that the solenoid the hold switch operates is jammed on and is holding the auto in one gear.

TOONGA

Post by **Alex** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 9:00 pm

Try taking the negative battery lead off for the night. Once you take it off just tap the brakes to drain all the power out of the system.

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steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Tue May 01, 2012 8:12 am

you kidding ?? There is power in the system once you disconnect battery and the brake lights will drain it ??

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Tue May 01, 2012 1:08 pm

steptoe wrote:you kidding ?? There is power in the system once you disconnect battery and the brake lights will drain it ??

There can be "residual" voltage left in the system, by using the brake pedal it apparently safely uses what's left in the system...

Cheers

Bennie

Post by **Alex** » Tue May 01, 2012 3:10 pm

El_Freddo wrote:There can be "residual" voltage left in the system, by using the brake pedal it apparently safely uses what's left in the system...

Cheers

Bennie

this is absolutely correct.

take your negative battery lead off and then touch the brakes, watch the brake lights, they will flash on for 0.000001 seconds.

alex

95Liberty · Post by **95Liberty** » Tue May 01, 2012 8:16 pm

Alex wrote:Try taking the negative battery lead off for the night. Once you take it off just tap the brakes to drain all the power out of the system.

Sent from my HTC Velocity 4G using Tapatalk 2

It worked for a few minutes, although it did occasionally hold it in gear longer than normal, until it got stuck between gears for a minute.

Gannon · Post by **Gannon** » Tue May 01, 2012 8:38 pm

So I'm going to assume that this is a 1995 Liberty?

The hold switch only tells the TCU to omit first gear, reduce fluid pressure and lower the shift points. Its hardly noticeable when driving, except when driving on slippery road

Your fault sounds much more serious. Is there any lights on the dash that relate to the auto transmission?

thunder039 · Post by **thunder039** » Tue May 01, 2012 8:59 pm

gannon is right to ht ebest of my knowedge is used for snow were it eliminates 1st gear and the car will take off in second to reduce wheel spin. i think there might be different issue here

taza · Post by **taza** » Tue May 01, 2012 9:07 pm

Lets hope you don't need a new gearbox mate, especially after all the work you recently had done!

My favourite button on an auto is the 'Power button'!!

akpv · Post by **akpv** » Wed May 02, 2012 12:00 am

I am not familiar with the model but best bet would be to see if you can get any error codes out of the TCU.

This will either require a scanner or a specific procedure and a bit of morse code inspired interpretation. I don't have much experience with the subaru autos but no doubt someone on here can tell you what you need to do. There is some good info on this site: http://www.surrealmirage.com/subaru/trans.html

95Liberty · Post by **95Liberty** » Wed May 02, 2012 12:15 am

Theres 2 hold switches. Im not talking about the one that makes the light appear on the dash, but the other hold switch. Infact I've never noticed that hold switch doing any thing before.

Gannon · Post by **Gannon** » Wed May 02, 2012 6:22 am

Im not aware of a second switch, got a photo you can show us?

95Liberty · Post by **95Liberty** » Wed May 02, 2012 9:24 pm

Gannon wrote:Im not aware of a second switch, got a photo you can show us?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/75945909@N04/7135142821

Gannon · Post by **Gannon** » Wed May 02, 2012 10:49 pm

Im pretty sure that there is only supposed to be one. Can you remove the trim and take some photos of the wires at the back of the switches. I have a feeling that somebody has added a switch and just used a AT HOLD switch.

95Liberty · Post by **95Liberty** » Fri May 04, 2012 8:53 pm

Gannon wrote:Im pretty sure that there is only supposed to be one. Can you remove the trim and take some photos of the wires at the back of the switches. I have a feeling that somebody has added a switch and just used a AT HOLD switch.

I cant remove the trim, cant see any screws anywhere.

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Fri May 04, 2012 9:05 pm

A tiny flat blade screwdriver from a jewellers set may be needed to prise the switch out - leave the console sitting so the sun can warm it up a bit first. I reckon Ganon is correct in guessing the 2nd switch was handy to someone

Someone might believe I had left right split AC in my Brumby - used as manual rad fan switches - no AC at all !

Has it righted itself at all ??

Wonder if extra switch was to lock out a diff at the front as for towing etc ??

RSR 555 · Post by **RSR 555** » Thu May 10, 2012 1:47 am

Hey Matt.. I'm thinking that the second switch was put in there by Brett (Outback Bloke) as a way of locking the centre diff. You might want to send him a PM and just ask him?

Other than that, give me a bell on the mobie and we'll see if you can drop into the shop for a quick squiz