A340E 30/40 LS transmission troubleshoot

[dumbass]

haha never buy an unfinished project
its unfinished for a bloody reason hehehe

is the overdrive or the inhibitor wired up correctly
the overdrive is not like the early boxes

if it doesn't change at right time its either tps settings or speed settings

if speed signal to fast or slow it will change when gearbox changes gears
but this would be consistant

so maybe u have a tps problem

[Bitsa]

haha never buy an unfinished project
its unfinished for a bloody reason hehehe

Amen to that. Got rid of some fluid out of it today and it's apparent that the changes are smoother. Not sure if that's what was supposed to happen, but, it did. Given the state of the wiring in the car in general I won't be at all surprised if wiring is the problem.

[dumbass]

wiring is the hardest thing to fix on forums
90% of cars I see are fkt
and some I even hope back into my car and drive back home
not worth putting my name to them
the more u dig the more shit u find
sometimes is best to rip engine loom out and start again

[Bitsa]

dumbass I'd say mine would be in your 90% if you looked at it. Re letting some trans fluid out. The car clearly changes smoother since I did that. The changes are barely noticeable now and if I was to drive it sensibly all the time I wouldn't have a problem or at least a noticeable problem, but, no point having a 1j in it if I'm going to be sensible all the time. Thing is, was coming home yesterday and all was good, was thinking how well the car was changing gear even when I gave it a kick in the guts along the link road here and then, once more, was coming (uphill) towards a set of lights, they turned yellow, I gunned it a little, it changed back to what I presume was 3rd, then wouldn't change until I stopped at a roundabout about 1/2 a k away.
Ah well. I know I should just take it to an auto trans place, but, I've had expensively bad experiences with auto trans places.

[cresslux]

not a fan of auto trans shops, they like to charge an arm and a leg for anything.

my current daily, came with receipts for almost $5k for rebuilding an a340e. why anyone in their right mind would spend that much rebuilding an auto to factory spec is beyond me! (cosideringt you can pic up a jzz30/jzx90 box for under $200 most of the time!)

If its holding gears for no apparent reason, its probable shonky wiring.

i agree with dumbass, sometimes you cant fix peoples wiring mess, and its easier to just get the sidecutters out and start over, problem is most customers dont understand that and flip out when you give them a price!

does the auto trans harness appear to be cut and joined at all? usually if its a different trans, the plugs are different too.

[maj]

There are dodgy auto trans places out there as well as good ones. I've been to 3 shops and haven't forked out the rebuild cost yet, but these are my experiences:

- Shop 1, has a bunch of project cars out front, really helpful and genuinely interested on helping, even sells you his odd spare solenoids from his box for $10 if you can find anything that will fit. Shop isn't especially clean but he is up front honest that he works on all transmissions so his jack of all trades means he may not be the most qualified, but unlikely to rip you off either. Kind of guy you'd probably go back to many times but not always for the right reason.

- Shop 2, throws you a vague "anywhere between 2.5 and 3.5k" rebuild figure "and thats' before we even open it up to see whats wrong", proceeds to leave the car on the hoist and park a car under it and won't move it even though you are there at 5 and they close at 5:30, so had to go and pick it up the next morning instead.

- Shop 3, One of the most reputable places around, say flat out rebuild cost is a flat rate $1850 ex GST and it comes with a 2 year/50,000km warranty, and will take exactly one week to rebuild. Itemize everything that will be replaced and serviced, But then proceed to quote the wrong transmission make.

[Bitsa]

cresslux given the state of the wiring in general it's most likely the culprit. I still haven't had the time to get underneath it properly to check things out, but, will be doing so tomorrow. One thing I've mentioned before though in another thread is the neutral start switch is hooked up or wired up or whatever it's supposed to be i.e the car will start in gear. Not good.

maj I've been to numbers 2 and 3

Thanks for the replies men.

[cresslux]

i have found incorrectly wired neutral start wiring can cause all kinds of odd issues, from low power to stalling, rough idle, heavy fuel consumption, rough starting, odd auto behaviour and so on.

at very least make sure the STA pin on the ecu is connected to the starter wire. if you can start the car in any gear then i'm going to put money on neither the NSW or STA pin are connected to the starting circuit.

[Bitsa]

cresslux my blunder in my last post. What I meant to say is the neutral start switch ISN'T hooked up i.e it'll start in gear and I wasn't able to get under the car today to check for bodgy wiring as it's been raining here and I haven't a car port or garage at my disposal.

Can you point me in the direction of the starter wire ? Might be a stupid question but I got no idea.

Also I noticed today that my ecu, that's just sitting in the glovebox, has plugs/wires in only the 34p and 22p. The other 2 are empty.

[dumbass]

cut the nsw wire u don't need it
with the sta wire make sure it only gets 12v when cranking

maybe just to be safe cut both u just wont get the cold cranking enrichment

99% of neutral start problems is the nsw wire to ecu so cut it and throw it out hehe

[Bitsa]

Geez dumbass if I start cutting things it'll probably never go again !!!

On another note. One thing I noticed this morning is the wire coming out of the ecu for the water temp sensor. The pinout I got from the internet, which I'm assured is the right one, has it's colour as green. The pinout I got with the car is the same one i.e. the wire is supposed to be green. The wire coming out of my ecu which I've checked checked and double checked is blue with a yellow stripe. How can that be ?

[dumbass]

just probe the water temp wire
should be the thw pin

just pull the nsw pin out of ecu plug and road test its a black white wire

maybe put a multimeter on the thw wire too should be close to 4v when very cold and 1v when warmed up
or even .8v if its around that then its ok

[Bitsa]

Ok I'll do that with the nsw wire. The water temp wire is as it should be. It's just not green. Am I right in saying the wire/s from the temp gauge in the digital dash go all the way to near the ecu ? I found a diagram that came with the car that allegedly points out the temp gauge wire from the dash and it's in a yellow plug near the ecu. If that's right I think I'll be able to get the temp gauge working.

[cresslux]

just follow the wires to the sensor on the engine. theres 2 temp sensors, a two wire (its juts for the ecu) and a single wire one (juts for the gauge, has no effect on the engine operation)
whip out the multimeter and get prodding.

[Bitsa]

Ran the car till it got to normal operating temperature. Wired up the temp gauge as well as a painter can or at least this painter can and the temp indicator light sat in the middle of the gauge where it's supposed to for about 2 seconds then shot to the top i.e. the hot part and started flashing. I'm going to the pub.