S2 Auto Box Dropping To 3Rd

[Space Goat]

G'day

While driving at highway speed my transmission light comes on and it wont shift into 4th gear. not even in manual shift mode.

It only happens when i go on long drives at highway speeds.

All i usually do is pull over switch the car off, remove the keys count to 10 turn the car on and im off with no problems.

I get the transmission serviced regularly and nothing is ever found out of the ordinary.

Anyone experienced this?? it doesnt happen on short trips, only really long ones probably 4 hours plus. And the last thing i want is to be broken down in the middle of nowhere.

I know the box doesn't shift into 4th until its reached its operating temperature (5 minutes of driving usually). But could it have something to do with sitting on the one speed and the box not doing much. there is a transmission cooler under the front driver side guard. Perhaps something to to with a thermostat sticking open and the oil is cooling down too much in the 100ks of air that is passing through it. Thats all i can think of. Its not like it happens all the time if it was an electronic fault i would expect it to happen pretty regularly but you just cant tell it might happen within half an hour of each other and then goes fine for the rest of the drive and for next 6 months.

Thanks in advance

Cheers

Rick

[pipster11]

Block the cooler and drew is it does it?

[QWK32]

Block the cooler and drew is it does it?

Hmmmmmm............ i think i agree........ as cause down for it is around blue........... Hi Tom

Rick, i do a 400km trip quite a few times a year (in my auto S2) and have never had an issue like you describe, i haven't had any real issues with my auto. i'm sure the auto has a safe mode where it locks into 3rd and wont shift when it goes out on a fault/error code. when you get the auto serviced do they put a scan tool on to check for any fault codes on the auto? you can check the error codes yourself, there was a thread in the stagea section on how to do it, may be worth a try.

[pipster11]

Many typo's in that post

Stupid phone

[bubba]

Yeah dropping to 3rd is like limp mode.

I do shitloads of driving in my Stag, even on 1300km trips with a fairly high average speed, no issues like that.

It's either not getting hot enough, getting too hot, or there is a solenoid or something dying.