Auto Owners/ Drivers

[chrislloydie]

I have a 54 plate 1.6 Auto with 30k, serviced as recommended.

I was just wondering if anybody could tell me if their auto megane has the same characteristics as mine or if I might be experiencing early signs of a problem.

If I accelerate moderately quickly but then as the car is accelerating I ease off, the gearbox takes an age to change down again and so it sounds as though the engine is racing/ over revving. Eventually it changes down and drives smoothly again.

Also when I first pull away after car has been sitting, for the first few miles it seems to change up through the gears too late, again causing it to sound like I'm thrashing the car when I'm trying to accelerate smoothly.

Also the car seems to be running quite a bit noisier and also feels more sluggish than it used too. I have had dephaser changed.

Anyone comment on theirs or suggest any problems that might cause these symptoms.

[rencar12]

I have a 2.0 litre Auto Grand Scenic on an '06 plate.

It does sound like your auto box may be perfoming strangely, as mine has only ever done this whilst it seemed to be getting used to my style of driving.

I do however find a couple of quirks with the auto:

When I first leave home in the mornings and for the first 5-10 minutes the gearbox changes gear at strange times. After this time it seems to settle back into my style of driving, which I then find very smooth. I don't put this down to a fault, as others have reported similar characteristics with the pro-active box.

With regards to acceleration, I do find that if I put my foot right down to the boards, the car is absolutely screaming (with the revs very high) before it settles back to the correct gear. When I first got the car I thought something was really wrong! If I want to overtake now, I tend to drop the gearbox into manual mode and do it that way. Again, I suspect because I never normally flatten the accelerator pedal that the pro-active setup is completely thrown by doing this and this may be normal?

Hope this helps.

Thanks

[Gav]

I don't have an auto Megane, but my wife drives a semi-auto Corsa, which may be similar - it's basically a computerised manual.

Anyway, the way that gearbox works is that it holds each gear longer while the engine warms up, presumably so that it will warm up faster. Also I find it reluctant to change where I would in a manual car, requiring some skill to learn how to get it to respond using only the accelerator. My wife isn't worried about these things - she just likes to get in and go without using her left leg.

[Stranger]

Mine was a 1.6 auto and whilst it did some strange things it didn't do anything like you are suggesting.

One thing mine did was when pulling away from a junction at a normal pace the change from 1st to 2nd, as I thought, was rather jerky. Someone pointed out to me that this was infact the torque converter locking up. It did it that infrequently that I never pursued it with the dealer.

There was another thing that it did but I cannot for the life of me remember what it was, I'll have mentioned it in a post on here somewhere but I don't have time to go looking for it now.

Suffice to say I've never exeperienced or heard of anything like the problems that you are describing.

[Privilege]

My experience of the ProActive gearbox wasn't a very positive one. Having to have a new gearbox fitted after just 3,000 miles finished my relationship with my Phase II Megane

However it did have strange operating traits before the trouble started, which after driving other Meganes since have found to be 'normal' The one that used to really bug me was what I think you are describing. If I was to overtake someone and used kickdown to pass them, once I had passed and eased of the throttle the car wouldn't change up, instead it would stay in say 3rd gear and continue revving until the cars speed slowed down to match the revs and then it would change back to 4th. If I had passengers in the car I had to explain what was going on, otherwise they might think I couldn't drive properly

In my opinion it doesn't behave like a proper automatic in that when you ease of the throttle the revs don't drop, they stay up consistent with the speed, just like a manual until you get to crawling speed. If I didn't know better I would think it was an automated manual . Also it has that wierd 2 part 2nd gear which sound like its making a secondary change

When I first had the car the changes were excellent, but gradually started getting very lumpy and lurchy. Despite numerous visits to the dealer and having the gearbox 'reset' and being told there was nothing wrong, it finally went bang. It was found that the gearbox was shredding the linings of the torque converter and thats when they fitted a new gearbox on a 9 month old car and at the same time they bought it back of me

Hope the above info helps

[ferkemall]

OK I don't own a Megan but I do own a Renault modus 1.6 automatic 2005 with 50,000 on the clock ,Mayan/Clio/modus and a few other models use the same engines trans units , these trans units known as AL4 /dpo have been used by PSA = Citroen /Renault /Peugeot over a long period of years, PSA sold these units as sealed for life stating that they only needed topping up now and again ,any other mfg of trans units will tell you that the fluid needs to be changed every 30,000 m some of these units have a drain plug and some do not they only have a level plug , solinoids can be a problem ,and can cost appx £50 ,the original ones had a white plastic molded top ,newer Borg warner ones have a black top but when fitted you have to update the software or its back to square one, fluid for these units HAS TO FULLY SYNTHETIC
Dex 2/3 won't cut it ,reno point out in their handbook that to long in traffic,to long on the motorway,carrying/pulling a heavy load can cause the unit to overheat,they go on to say that you should change the thermostat for one of a lower value,all of this points to over heating ,there is a condition sensor in the unit that reads this and flags it up to the computer hence bump rough shift limp mode /lockout.

Fluid is subject to material being pumped around the unit with swarf and friction debris causing premature wear to torque converter,valve body components (solinoids valves),seals and bearings /bushings, PSA know all of this ,some units have failed at 6000 m .
All you can do is to keep the fluid clean and make its FULLY SYNTHETIC !
and put extra magnets around the pan !

[ferkemall]

Apart from the usual Renault problems this is an adaptive system that said it sounds like your transmission unit is not locking up the torque converter for the shift hence the rpm going up there is a valve in the valvebody that does this so its either the valve is defective or its not getting the signal to lock the converter up ,once locked in it won't over rev,

The gear will engage but its relying on the converter to put the power through to the wheels the converter is spinning the impeller but the impeller is not locked in to give the drive ,if it does this do not rev it up as you can damage the lock up clutch in the converter if it slams in,

You will have to get it to a proper diagnostic to find out if the valve or its the converter .

To get a better understanding on converters go onto YouTube .
Long winded but I hope this helps.

Also check with Renault to see if there are any updates for the software on this transmission
They seem to need updates for various applications of these units !