TD5 Autobox not going into First Gear

Well a good result but by mysterious ways...!!! I took out the center console then unplugged the autobox harness before pulling, poking and prodding the harness's rubber grommet to loosen it from the body. When it was loose I connected the multiplugs to drive to where I can use a lift to access the underneath and lo and behold the 'S and M' lights stopped flashing. I checked the error codws then cleared them and went for a short drive. The autobox was working as expected going through the gears but one added bonus was the gear indicator on the LCD screen was working. This had never worked before in my 6 years of ownership..!!! I'll keep the center console off for a day or so's driving but I wonder if the problem was in the multiplugs.Something tells me one or more of the harness wires are actually at fault and have just been moved out of harms way but I hope not. Thanks again to everyone for their help. I was at my wits end but now I know a lot more than I did a few days ago. So unusual the BCM being programmed with petrol/manual so the warning lights did not flash......that's the way it goes.

Update, the flashing lights came back on...and off...and on... the sensible thing is to take out the harness for inspection

With the amount of time you have spend looking at the possible problems! Advise from LZ!! In to many possibilities! finding the fault? You will rightly be the one person to advise others at a later date!!

Well done
PS: I'm will have a look at the LCD on my one later!! (4 years telling me just 'D')

So, to be clear, did the chafing occur at the point where the P clip holds the harness?
cos if not, we need to start looking at other places. In the same circumstances.

Hello there, the chaffing was at the P clip. Nothing seen from the outside but once I stripped the silver insulating material away the two affected wires were easily seen.

Thanks for that.
As for the third incident, can I suggest you look really deeply into all the wires in the loom at that point. It isn't always obvious but often another or others are also affected.
Pleased you have at least solved a lot of it.. If the xyz switch is correct for all other gears it would be a bit bizarre if the other fault is down to that. If it was out of kilter I think we could expect more than one gear to be affected. altho I am prepared to be corrected on this.

I hope not but you could well be right. At the moment it seems to get the P0705 communiction error when cycling the gear lever through Reverse so I think I'll take off the XYZ swith and see what the condition is like...... At least there haven't been any more short circuit error codes.

jalmassi said:

I hope not but you could well be right. At the moment it seems to get the P0705 communiction error when cycling the gear lever through Reverse so I think I'll take off the XYZ swith and see what the condition is like...... At least there haven't been any more short circuit error codes.

Click to expand...

The switches don't like rapid movements from one position to another, but if you take the XYZ switch off make sure you know what you are doing when it comes to putting it back on again.
If you want to take it apart and clean it, it is possible, but you'll need to muck about rather and buy some nuts and bolts to hold it all together again.
There are threads on both these things on here and elsewhere on the web. Much cheaper than buying a new XYZ switch.
DO check the loom out absolutely thoroughly before removing the XYZ.

Stanleysteamer said:

The switches don't like rapid movements from one position to another, but if you take the XYZ switch off make sure you know what you are doing when it comes to putting it back on again.
If you want to take it apart and clean it, it is possible, but you'll need to muck about rather and buy some nuts and bolts to hold it all together again.
There are threads on both these things on here and elsewhere on the web. Much cheaper than buying a new XYZ switch.
DO check the loom out absolutely thoroughly before removing the XYZ.

Click to expand...

+1

Will do......especially as I'll be back down there again soon Thanks again.

Well finally got her up on the ramp this afternoon and inspected the wiring harness again, everything looked good there. Took off the XYZ switch, a little tight but doable thank goodness. The switch looked brand new on the outside and after drilling out the rivets the same could be said of the inside except for two slight areas that showed dullness and therefore a little corrosion. One on the housing and one on the corresponding 'finger' on the rotating part. I scraped these clean, got them to shine and then bolted the housing back together. I had bought the XYZ alignment tool and after a little fiddling aligned and then bolted the switch back on.
Now everything appears to be working well, no flashing lights and no error messages. Now it's just waiting for the next excitement........
Thank you very much to everyone who helped me, really very appreciated.

Glad to hear it

jalmassi said:

Now it's just waiting for the next excitement........

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You'll never be bored!!!!
Job well done!