(AL4 Gearbox problem) Rough change between 1st to 2nd gear

[gpktm]

Hi all

This morning I had a very frequent problem with the gear change. On every change from 1st to 2nd gear, the change was rough. It happened to me in the past as well but not very frequently. Maybe in a 100kms trip it was occurring 2 to 3 times.

In the past, I had another problem with the transmission, when I was stuck in traffic and the transmission was getting too hot, then every time I was coming to a complete stop, the transmission was not completely disengaging and if I was stepping on the throttle it felt like it was in Neutral. After few second the transmission was coming back to normal and you could feel a "kick" at the back of the seat - like a rough change from Neutral to 1st gear or something. I've made a post about it in this forum as well. http://www.peugeot206cc.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=16668

About a year and a half ago (around 60000kms before) I asked my mechanic to replace the transmission fluid as it was the cheapest option to see if the problem will go away or not, when he performed the fluid replacement he said the fluid looked fine and it wasn't burned and did not look like it was too old either.

Nevertheless, after he replaced the fluid the car was operating normally, especially for the first few months I had no problems at all. After a while the tranny started to show both of the problems, the rough change every so often and the "kick" when it was getting hot. And this morning both of them occurred on every single stop despite I had an easy drive and didn't stuck in traffic at all.

From what I've checked quickly on the internet, people reporting similar problems (mainly for rough changes from 1st to 2nd) are talking about faulty solenoids or clogged transmission filter.

Just to add here that I am not getting any warning indications on the dashboard.

So, first I would like your thoughts of what you think the problem might be. Second, how easy - or hard - is to replace the solenoids and the filter myself? I never tried to mess around with the tranny, it was in my plans to replace the fluid myself but I gave up as it was hard even to locate the drain plugs on this thing.

The car is a 2006 Peugeot 206cc Petrol 1.6L 16V TU5JP4 and the tranny is the AL4. The car has 250000kms.

[IanL]

Draining the fluid does not empty the transmission - the fluid in the torque converter is unchanged. At 250,000 km, I would think the transmission is ready for dismantling, so that the TC can be drained and flushed, and any contaminants in the valve area cleaned out as well.

You may find some helpful stuff here.

[gpktm]

I've read here about someone with the same problem as mine and later on is mentioned that he drove the car through a big puddle of water. I've found this mentioned in other forums as well with people mentioning that after driving through water had transmission problems. Can that be the case? I'm asking because the last week we had a couple of days with heavy rain and I had to drive through flooded roads maybe up to 10-20cm high and sometimes with high speed like 50kms/hr. Is it possible water to infiltrate inside the gearbox?

http://www.citroenchat.com/showthread.php?t=12819

[IanL]

I suppose that water could infiltrate via the driveshaft seals, or via a breather aperture (I expect the gearbox has one), but I'd imagine it would take a pronounced submergence, rather than a splash through a puddle.

[Capncol]

As Ian has said with the addition that autoboxes run very hot, and suddenly cooling them with water causes the air inside to contract and as the seals are predominantly 1 way (to keep oil in) it is possible to suck water through driveshaft seals.

BTW. You should never drive through a flood at speed. You are lucky you didn't hydraulic the engine. I would check the air filter too while you are there.

[gpktm]

OK thanks, guys. Tomorrow I'm taking it to the mechanic to replace the fluid hoping for an easy fix.

[IanL]

Good luck. Only use Esso/Mobil LT 71141. See here.