[svxcess]

Originally Posted by Filip

Hello,

Firstly I would like to apologize in advance if I make some grammar errors, as English is not my primary language and I am not using it regularly.

So I am a new owner of a 1993 SVX. It is a beautiful car it is and so quiet and comfortable :-)

Mileage is roughly 157,000 miles. No corrosion. Car is generally in very solid condition. Its from Germany.
Before I bought the car, I knew about tranny issues, yet I must say, that I didn't expect that I would be dealing with this problem so soon. I have driven only 500 miles with this car and most of it was on the way home from the dealer.

Before buying, with test drive completed, no such problem occurred.


Symptoms:

The SVX won't go into 3rd and 4th gear. In 1st gear, I must go to exactly to 3500rpm and above, in order to tranny change gear to 2nd. Also I must depress gas pedal, to make it shift. Otherwise, it would just stay in 1st gear and rev up.

In some situations, when going around 15-30mph, after braking, clutch is slipping, so I have to rev the car a bit in order to accelerate.

When I put shift lever to 3, car is acting like if it would be in neutral - after pressing gas pedal down, revs are going higher, but speed is not, it looks like clutch is slipping. I must be around 5000 rpm in order to make it accelerate.

ATF on the tranny dipstick is still red, with only bit of brown. Its definitely not burnt, or black.

When I tried self-diagnostics (power light) I got code 24, which is duty solenoid C...

The other thing that bothering me is, that when I park the car and turn engine off (maybe even with engine on, I haven't tried it yet) I detect some sort of weird smell. First I thought it was from fresh paint on exhaust system, but as I already driven over 500 miles with the car, paint should have already burnt off, right ?

It's sort of burnt plastic smell... Could it have any relationship to tranny issue ?

In case it would help anybody, to determine my problem, I can gladly elaborate on problems, or make video of drive.

Thank you very much for any help you can offer - it will be very appreciated,

With regards

Filip

Filip,

I have referred your inquiries and this thread to my good friend, Trevor Sheffield in New Zealand. He used to be here on the network and is very familiar with the SVX transmission and always has great advice to give. So please listen to this reply from him and trust his judgement. He said:

Your transmission has defaulted to the "get you home" or “ limp” mode, because the TCU has detected a fault and that fault is very likely a lack of line pressure.

Do not replace anything or do anything, until you have the line pressure tested, as is instructed within the manuals. Do not drive the car or if you do, do not apply full power/throttle as the lack of line pressure will be causing the clutches to slip and overheat, hence the smell.

The fault could be no more than the failure of solenoid "A", which is not hugely expensive to fix and does not require the removal of the transmission.
.