Technical Comfortmatic problem

[Clunkspur]

Hi all,
My Motorhome is a 3ltr 160 mutijet with a comfortmatic gearbox on an 08 plate. It’s been a good drive and has not missed a beat until recently. Back in January the battery went completely and tried starting it and the whole dash lit up like a Christmas tree. New battery fitted all the lights went out as normal, except the gearbox light and the “Gear unavailable “ flashing. My go to mechanic tried his diagnostic tablet with no luck, and then tried another from his mate who works with commercials no luck would not talk to the gearbox ecu. Got it down to my nearest Fiat Professional and they reset it no info given just a “all done”. Fast forward to July, i had two new tyres fitted to the front and the fitter went to back the van out, after a couple of minutes he said it wont go into gear and the dreaded “gear unavailable “ was flashing. After restarting several times it went into 1st and i drove back towards the storage yard everything working until i came to a stop, it would not drop from 2nd to first and stalled. It now will not do anything, with just the ignition on in goes into 1st - reverse-neutral, as soon as the engine is started the gearbox light flashes and the dreaded message flashes.
I have now tried 15 different garages in the area around me (Gloucester/Cheltenham) no one wants to know as soon as i mention Comfortmatic. The Fiat Professional has closed down this month making all staff redundant. I am now at a loss at what to do, can anyone suggest anything or know of a garage that can help me. I would be extremely grateful for any guidance on this.

 

[wibos]

Hi Clunkspur, I'm from Italy and I've now the same problem, in Italy noone knows Comfortmatic gear, it's terrible.
Do you have MES for diagnosis ?

 

[Clunkspur]

Hi Wibos, I don’t, but i have another garage to try this weekend. If they cannot help then i am going to buy it and self diagnose. Once i have the fault codes my local garage tells me they will fix it, they just cant read it themselves. That way if anything else happens in the future (god forbid) at least i have it and have a chance.

 

[CheeseMonster]

Hi all,
My Motorhome is a 3ltr 160 mutijet with a comfortmatic gearbox on an 08 plate. It’s been a good drive and has not missed a beat until recently. Back in January the battery went completely and tried starting it and the whole dash lit up like a Christmas tree. New battery fitted all the lights went out as normal, except the gearbox light and the “Gear unavailable “ flashing. My go to mechanic tried his diagnostic tablet with no luck, and then tried another from his mate who works with commercials no luck would not talk to the gearbox ecu. Got it down to my nearest Fiat Professional and they reset it no info given just a “all done”. Fast forward to July, i had two new tyres fitted to the front and the fitter went to back the van out, after a couple of minutes he said it wont go into gear and the dreaded “gear unavailable “ was flashing. After restarting several times it went into 1st and i drove back towards the storage yard everything working until i came to a stop, it would not drop from 2nd to first and stalled. It now will not do anything, with just the ignition on in goes into 1st - reverse-neutral, as soon as the engine is started the gearbox light flashes and the dreaded message flashes.
I have now tried 15 different garages in the area around me (Gloucester/Cheltenham) no one wants to know as soon as i mention Comfortmatic. The Fiat Professional has closed down this month making all staff redundant. I am now at a loss at what to do, can anyone suggest anything or know of a garage that can help me. I would be extremely grateful for any guidance on this.

A long way for you but Adams Morey, Portsmouth seems to be the "go to" place.

 

[Clunkspur]

Thanks for that, I’ll keep that name safe as I’m having zero luck locally

 

[daimlermg]

I’m just having a similar issue to yourself. My symptoms were when first starting the Motorhome. The clutch appear to bite very low down the rev range and almost like starting a vehicle with it in gear this cleared a little bit after a few yards and I was able to go backwards and forwards on my drive be at the gears weren’t changing the right revs, et cetera, then it decided it had enough and the gear is not available lite came on.
The Cure. Check the fluid reservoir for the clutch is the fluid black by any chance?. if it is it needs a flush/bleed I’ve done mine now three times in the last week and it’s still coming out slightly black after 20 to 30 miles driving each time.
When I first got the gears unavailable message I flushed the clutch fluid and start of the engine and the gears were available just take a note as an aside while I was flushing it. I disconnected the battery. I don’t think this is connected, but it’s worth doing.

 

[Clunkspur]

Thanks for this, i have another mechanic coming out tomorrow and he mentioned bleeding/flushing the clutch fluid so i will show him your message. Hopefully mine maybe a similar solution. Will let you know. Thanks again.

 

[daimlermg]

Thanks for this, i have another mechanic coming out tomorrow and he mentioned bleeding/flushing the clutch fluid so i will show him your message. Hopefully mine maybe a similar solution. Will let you know. Thanks again.

Did you get it fixed

 

[Clunkspur]

Looks like you were right about about the clutch, fluid leaking somewhere. Going into garage Monday to find and repair. As soon as i know and it’s done will let you know. Thanks again for the pointer

 

[Clunkspur]

just a quick update, the garage today fixed / flushed / bleed the clutch system and i now have a working again Motorhome. Gear changes as smooth as they always were. Thanks for all the pointers especially daimlermg for the clutch suggestion, it was spot on.
Cheers all.

 

[daimlermg]

I am glad you have it fixed. Must be a great relief. I know I was relieved when I got my working again..
I think I flushed mine now about five times the first time I got it working. The second time was after driving 30 miles and as I parked in the drive I could tell the clutch was biting a bit low down , flushing again and cured it.
I’m flushing it a few more times now just to ensure that the fluid is clear. I’m still getting black fluid as I flush it, but that apparently is not unusual and it will still work with black fluid I am taking it into Fiat professional on the 28th of August. That’s as sued as they can put me in just for a check on the Fat software to make sure all the settings are correct and they can adjust the bite point necessary .

 

[Clunkspur]

Yes very relieved, they reset all mine they said as well. It’s due a service & MOT end of October so may get them to check it again to make sure. Giving it a run the weekend to make sure, for my own peace of mind
Thanks again

 

[Joli]

I had the same error message, "gea unavailable", gearbox was in N. After a lot of investigation and searching on the web I found that the pump to activate the gearbox was not running when starting the car or I wanted to shift gear In my case this was caused by a broken relay next to the fuse box in the engine compartment. Couldn't find any documentation on the web or in user manuals about this secret releay. Seems it was added specially for this automatic gearbox. I have added a picture where it is located, probable the first and easist thing to check when the error message appears.

 

[daimlermg]

I had the same error message, "gea unavailable", gearbox was in N. After a lot of investigation and searching on the web I found that the pump to activate the gearbox was not running when starting the car or I wanted to shift gear In my case this was caused by a broken relay next to the fuse box in the engine compartment. Couldn't find any documentation on the web or in user manuals about this secret releay. Seems it was added specially for this automatic gearbox. I have added a picture where it is located, probable the first and easist thing to check when the error message appears.

Thanks Joli that’s really useful info

 

[wibos]

Thanks Joli that’s really useful info

Search on web Gearbox M40, it’s the technician manual of our comfortmatic

 

[Joli]

Search on web Gearbox M40, it’s the technician manual of our comfortmatic

I read it, unfortunately I couldn't find anything about this extra relay. It is also not mounted in the fusebox but has a dedicated support. This caused the problem as water could enter in the relay and created rust inside. After replacing it no more issues with the automatic gearbox.

 

[Ians6]

just a quick update, the garage today fixed / flushed / bleed the clutch system and i now have a working again Motorhome. Gear changes as smooth as they always were. Thanks for all the pointers especially daimlermg for the clutch suggestion, it was spot on.
Cheers all.

Interested to know cost of your repair please…did mine myself for about £20.. not too difficult

 

[Clunkspur]

Hi, they charged me & £75 all in, that was coming out to diagnose it then a morning in the garage. So not too bad I thought

 

[Ians6]

Excellent…too many people told me Fiat specialist only which made me dig deeper….always up for a challenge.thats a good garage price.keep them on hand..thanks for reply, Ian