180hp engine and 9 speed auto warnings (19 Viewers)

[Tony50]

I always drive my Auto in Normal Mode , never in Economic Mode as I suspect it puts more strain on gearbox thus increasing oil temperature, I may be wrong of course.

 

[slowdriver]

I have a 2020 Ducato with the same engine, same gearbox and had a, perhaps, similar problem twice, both times descending the same hill in the Alps when I used the manual override on the ZF box to decrease speed. After a while the dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree and went into limp mode including a "drive straight to dealer" warning. I pulled over switched off for 10 minutes, restarted and got orange warning lights on the gearbox and engine, but not red warnings, drove to the local garage in limp mode where checked and then cleared down the faults. The main relevant fault was something about an issue between 4th and 3rd, he checked it over and pronounced all-good. The next year rather foolishly tried the same engine braking technique on the same hill, with the same result and a trip to the same garage. This suggests to me it's an ECU issue rather than a fundamental engine/gearbox issue since I did 9k faultless miles between both occurrences. If you get the same problem around St Gervais Les Bains (between Megeve and Chamonix) I recommend Garage GrandJacques on the Avenue de Miage on the road from St Gervais Le Bain to Les Contamines.

I should have added that I have never had a power issue with the van. The 180hp engine has taken us around the Alps for four years running at between 3.65 and 3.85 tons and apart from those two incidents it has been trouble-free. I am running a small test this year with running without the usual Fiat plastic trims (for steel wheels) to improve airflow around the brakes. Last year coming down on a 38C day from one of the high passes I got a tyrePal alarm for air temperature at 95C in the right front tyre. We will see if they run cooler next week. There is a thread elsewhere here on replacing the trims with plastic centre hub covers.

 

[cmj01]

Not sure if anyone can help, or if you’ve suffered the same problem. I have a 2021 Adria Sonic Supreme 810 on a Fiat Ducato 180hp with 9 sp auto gearbox bought from new. It is one of the last of the series 7 Ducatos. As a 5 tonne van I have always felt that 180hp is not quite enough in difficult circumstance e.g. roads with hills, as it is always sluggish to change down and will let the speed bleed off very quickly first. Taking control, either by shifting to manual, or kicking down works for a while but then a red engine or gearbox temperature light comes on along with an alternating amber check engine message and an amber ‘auto stop/start inoperative’ icon. Shutting down resets the red warning but not the amber messages. In the first year, the van was with a Fiat Professional dealer for close to 4 months until finally FIAT agreed to replace the transmission control unit (TCU). The saved error codes indicated too much use of both brake and accelerator – at the same time, something I suspect is a generic code for something else as I drive with one foot. No problem for two years until last week when in Sweden, and it happened again. We found a Fiat Professional dealer (with an English technician) who read and cleared the fault codes. They were the same as I recall from 2 years ago. He assured us it was not mechanical and it was safe to continue our travels. Since then, it has happened three more times and within 36 hours the ‘electronics’ have reset themselves and extinguished all the warnings. However, something is clearly not right both in that the engine struggles to keep speed on even a moderate incline, and after the fault because the engine revs are very high, 2,500rpm at 60mph in 8th gear. More normally at that speed and in that gear the revs are a tad over 1,500. I will also post on the Ducato forums but any information or guidance would be very much appreciated.

Not sure if anyone can help, or if you’ve suffered the same problem. I have a 2021 Adria Sonic Supreme 810 on a Fiat Ducato 180hp with 9 sp auto gearbox bought from new. It is one of the last of the series 7 Ducatos. As a 5 tonne van I have always felt that 180hp is not quite enough in difficult circumstance e.g. roads with hills, as it is always sluggish to change down and will let the speed bleed off very quickly first. Taking control, either by shifting to manual, or kicking down works for a while but then a red engine or gearbox temperature light comes on along with an alternating amber check engine message and an amber ‘auto stop/start inoperative’ icon. Shutting down resets the red warning but not the amber messages. In the first year, the van was with a Fiat Professional dealer for close to 4 months until finally FIAT agreed to replace the transmission control unit (TCU). The saved error codes indicated too much use of both brake and accelerator – at the same time, something I suspect is a generic code for something else as I drive with one foot. No problem for two years until last week when in Sweden, and it happened again. We found a Fiat Professional dealer (with an English technician) who read and cleared the fault codes. They were the same as I recall from 2 years ago. He assured us it was not mechanical and it was safe to continue our travels. Since then, it has happened three more times and within 36 hours the ‘electronics’ have reset themselves and extinguished all the warnings. However, something is clearly not right both in that the engine struggles to keep speed on even a moderate incline, and after the fault because the engine revs are very high, 2,500rpm at 60mph in 8th gear. More normally at that speed and in that gear the revs are a tad over 1,500. I will also post on the Ducato forums but any information or guidance would be very much appreciated.

I've had problem this trip with overheating transmission fluid on Sprinter based auto van. Hot day, full Aircon, big climbs on A75 in France and lots of engine breaking. Suddenly lost all power whilst driving along. Engine / oil temperature was fine. Seemed to go into limp mode and just made it to our destination. Annoying Sprinters don't have warning lights for this but it was pretty scary. Wonder if that could be your problem too?

 

[Simon H.]

We have a similar set up and no issues up hills. The Alps are 30mins from our house so we pass over them regularly and so far the van has pulled us up really well and were‘ often running at 5.5t when full.

Apologies for off topic but what tyres do you have on a 5ton vehicle?

 

[Steve-N]

Thank you , very helpful. One of the FP dealers who looked at in the early stages suggested to me that the ZF box doesn't have its own oil, instead taking it from the engine. I am not a technician so I have no idea if he was telling me porky pies or not.

Completely different type of oil !!

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