Technical Hymer B644 Motorhome - Auto Gearbox Advice

[Yorkshire Traveller]

Hymer B644 Motorhome - Fiat Ducato - Auto Gearbox Advice

Greetings:

We have a 2002 (2003 model) Hymer B644G motorhome built on a Fiat Ducato maxi chassis base. The motorhome is a 2.8JTD left hand drive and has a four speed automatic gearbox.

The gearbox has worked flawlessly for the past 13 years.

Occasionally on start up the gearbox warning light can take quite a while to go out. Normally it goes out immediately on start up but of late every now and again it can take up to a minute to go out.

The manual says that this light would come on in the event of the auto box oil overheating, however this occurs when starting from cold.

Could this just be a faulty sensor, or does the sensor check anything else such as auto box oil level? Given that the auto box is apparently sealed for life I'm not sure what could be done anyway!

Any help and advice much appreciated.

 

[corcai]

Re: Hymer B644 Motorhome - Fiat Ducato - Auto Gearbox Advice

Greetings:

We have a 2002 (2003 model) Hymer B644G motorhome built on a Fiat Ducato maxi chassis base. The motorhome is a 2.8JTD left hand drive and has a four speed automatic gearbox.

The gearbox has worked flawlessly for the past 13 years.

Occasionally on start up the gearbox warning light can take quite a while to go out. Normally it goes out immediately on start up but of late every now and again it can take up to a minute to go out.

The manual says that this light would come on in the event of the auto box oil overheating, however this occurs when starting from cold.

Could this just be a faulty sensor, or does the sensor check anything else such as auto box oil level? Given that the auto box is apparently sealed for life I'm not sure what could be done anyway!

Any help and advice much appreciated.

Have you checked the oil level? Sealed for life is bull**** the box is manufactured by ZF who recommend a change every 60k, half the oil stays in the torque convertor though so when you drain and fill you still have half the old crappy oil in.

Theres a guide here for a 406 which has the same/similar box:
http://www.406coupeclub.org/files/howtoguides/gearbox - change oil on a 4hp20 automatic gearbox.pdf

 

[Yorkshire Traveller]

Re: Hymer B644 Motorhome - Fiat Ducato - Auto Gearbox Advice

Hi corcai:

Thanks for your advice - I'll send a link to this thread to the excellent mechanic that looks after our motorhome.

Nigel

 

[corcai]

Re: Hymer B644 Motorhome - Fiat Ducato - Auto Gearbox Advice

The ducato doesn't have a dipstick by the way thinks theres a level plug near the inner cv joint. I'll see if I can find a picture.

This one shows the level plug:
http://www.christiantena.net/motor/peugeot/4HP20/4HP20oilcheck.pdf

Ducato box you can clearly see the blue cap:

By rights you should read the transmission codes, your supposed to check the temperature when checking the level, depending on what tools your mechanic has lexia should do it if you select boxer II or a tools like autocom / delphi / wow. Full version of multiscuscan too.

 

[Yorkshire Traveller]

Re: Hymer B644 Motorhome - Fiat Ducato - Auto Gearbox Advice

Hi corcai:

Thanks for the photo, much appreciated.

Nigel.