QP Festive Dashboard Lights (Transmission fault, go to dealer - Error Code P2637)

makeshiftUK

makeshiftUK

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The thing I feared most happened last night - QP (2010 GT S) lights up like an Xmas tree with my family on board, dashboard reads out something along the lines of 'transmission fault go to dealer' with dash icons/lights I've never seen before. Is the car safe to drive to a specialist in it's current state?

What happened - car was driving normally until I selected manual and 2nd gear, and as I was accelerating through the rev range the car lurches forward and selects 3rd... I immediately reselect auto/Drive and continue on sheepishly. This has happened once before about 3 months ago (also slipping out of 2nd and into 3rd) but as a one-off I thought nothing of it. About 30 mins later whilst stationary at some lights I receive the error message above along with what appears to be a red handbrake warning light, check engine, traction control, ASR and EPB inoperable. I pulled over, turned the car off for a bit then on again to see if the warning lights would reset (!) - they didn't. I was able to limp the car home, a journey of about 1 hour/20 miles, with difficulty - the gearbox would only stick with one gear (5th I think) which made moving off the lights and hillstarts particularly interesting... I've not been smoked off the line by a <1L Citroen before.

Any ideas what I'm up against here? Mine has the ZF 6-speed (which I thought was fairly reliable!) and the battery is only about 3-4 months old and lives on a CTEK.

109925
 
Scaf

Scaf

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I feel your pain and hope someone comes along with a diagnosis.

In the meantime I would try a battery disconnect for 30 mins or so and see if that gets you back on the road.
 
Sam McGoo

Sam McGoo

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Wheel speed/ABS sensor maybe? You need it plugging in and codes read really.

But as above, start with the easy things. Battery disconnect, check battery terminals are properly tight, check battery and alternator voltages, check boot floor well for water ingress.

Good luck
 
E

Ebenezer

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It could be your alternator giving up the ghost and not charging the battery. Did you notice intermittent battery icon flashing when you went over 3k revs? (But ignored it...) Ask me how I know... Eventually everything lit up and i managed to limp the car off the Marylebone flyover before it gave up the ghost completely. I could have been on traffic watch.

Nb Make sure you press Park off before you extract the key otherwise your last few electrons will be used putting the electric handbrake on and condemning you to having to unwind it manually and then needing a garage withe the correct computer to reset it.

Also forgot to say leave it in neutral if you can too, rather than park.

You live and learn!
Eb
 
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CatmanV2

CatmanV2

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The ZF box will lock in gear on over-voltage (among other things) When my reg/rec gave up, this happened, although my lights went away when I restarted. At least for a while. I'm going to plump with the alternator team and suggest it's on its way out.

C
 
Mavster

Mavster

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How long was it continously on the trickle charger ?

I have found that resetting the trickle charger once a few days help keeps the battery healthiest.

I hope it is only a battery type issue and sorted soon for you
 
makeshiftUK

makeshiftUK

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Thanks folks, I'm very grateful for the guidance and advice - I'll be taking some voltage readings to help draw some conclusions. The evidence seems to be leaning towards alternator failure... my last Exide battery lasted 15 months, AV tested it when I checked in for a service a few months ago and remarked that it wasn't holding enough voltage... it was replaced by the vendor (Tayna Batteries) at no-cost to me. I suspect my trickle charger is serving as an electrical band-aid to cover up my alternator challenges and at 80k-ish miles perhaps it's due a replacement.

Ebenezer said:
Nb Make sure you press Park off before you extract the key otherwise your last few electrons will be used putting the electric handbrake on and condemning you to having to unwind it manually and then needing a garage withe the correct computer to reset it.
Click to expand...
I always, always do this when parking up on our driveway - have learnt of people learning the hard way like yourself! I haven't noticed the battery icon flicking on, no...

Mavster said:
How long was it continously on the trickle charger ?
Click to expand...
When it's parked at home she's always on the trickle charger, I'll take her for a drive 2-3 times a week but typically short journeys (not long enough to provide a decent charge, hence the trickle charger!).
 
gb-gta

gb-gta

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I had an alternator issue last year. I think it had been slowly dying over a period of time. I’d had a new battery due to losing charge quite quickly. When the brand new battery only lasted less than 12 months it was clear there was another issue. Turns out it was the alternator, been fine since (sept 2021).

Look on the bright side, if it’s the alternator, and it’s the original, it’s lasted well !
Good luck with the diagnosis.
 
makeshiftUK

makeshiftUK

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philw696 said:
You need to see what voltage the Alternator is putting out first and go from there.
Bon Chance.
Click to expand...
Using a multimeter the results are in, although they're not as clear cut as I was hoping they'd be... what do we think? I'm comparing them against Matt's benchmarks from here: https://www.sportsmaserati.com/index.php?threads/battery-or-alternator-issues.35912/post-939938

Car off (battery fully charged with CTEK): 12.08v
Cold start: 14.26v
Warm start: 13.73v

With the engine running the only warning light that remains is the yellow check engine light. Following the voltage testing I performed a battery disconnect, unfortunately the check engine light persists.

110032
 
philw696

philw696

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Battery needs drop testing as that's not enough voltage and I bet it drops below 10 volts when cranking.
Alternator charging okay.
 
schell70

schell70

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12.08v is not enough - it's not a full charge, should be 12.6v or above - as Phil says it's probably dropping too low on start giving you all the lights.

£40 tester should identify if the battery is ok or not, then always handt to have.
 
makeshiftUK

makeshiftUK

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1,091
Alright - started her up this evening (been on the trickle charger since Monday, as usual) and NO warning lights this time round. Still no warning lights after a 45-min spirited drive. I checked the voltages after the drive to see if a hot engine bay would affect the alternator, and recorded 13.43v... not much lower than my previous readings.

I'm stumped. I'm tempted to buy another battery, perhaps another make this time other than Exide - the one I have right now is 3 months old.
 
Sam McGoo

Sam McGoo

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1,767
If it comes back, get another battery.
Out of interest, when you did your battery reset, were the battery clamps nice and tight? It could be that your terminals were a little loose. I had all the same lights on my old GT, and it was the terminals not being tight enough.
 
Motorsport3

Motorsport3

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makeshiftUK said:
Alright - started her up this evening (been on the trickle charger since Monday, as usual) and NO warning lights this time round. Still no warning lights after a 45-min spirited drive. I checked the voltages after the drive to see if a hot engine bay would affect the alternator, and recorded 13.43v... not much lower than my previous readings.

I'm stumped. I'm tempted to buy another battery, perhaps another make this time other than Exide - the one I have right now is 3 months old.
Click to expand...

Out of curiosity, did you have to reset unplug the battery/reset it to erase it, or just by charging it up the issue went away?
 
makeshiftUK

makeshiftUK

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1,091
Sam McGoo said:
If it comes back, get another battery.
Out of interest, when you did your battery reset, were the battery clamps nice and tight? It could be that your terminals were a little loose. I had all the same lights on my old GT, and it was the terminals not being tight enough.
Click to expand...
Agreed.
The clamps seemed fairly tight, and I made sure it was tight again post reset... I think I'll gently knock the connecting ring down with a flat-head screwdriver and hammer on the clamping side to ensure it never comes loose in-flight.

Motorsport3 said:
Out of curiosity, did you have to reset unplug the battery/reset it to erase it, or just by charging it up the issue went away?
Click to expand...
See post 10 - before I performed the reset the warning lights/error messages reduced to just one, the check engine light... don't ask me why, beyond charging for a day or two it after the incident occurred I hadn't touched it. After the reset the check engine light remained, and again after doing nothing more and starting her up last night I have no warning lights or messages.
 
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