My Car Won't Start! [3 lines thru "P"]

[esrazor]

I had exactly 300 miles on my car when I tried to start it today, in a parking lot, and it wouldn't start. I had already driven it several times today with no problems. Instead of having the gear selected showing in the dash, I had three horizontal bars going across and a warning sound beeping. Called smartusa, was put on hold for a few minutes, then was told my computer didn't know what gear the car was in. They had me put my foot on the brake pedal, turn the key to the on position, move the gear shifter through all of the gears and return it to park, turn off the key, and then restart the car. I actually didn't even turn the key to off because I could tell the problem was fixed as a "P" showed up in the dash. I was very glad it was such an easy fix and that it didn't need to be towed!

[SuperGeek]

Three bars sounds like the transmission "teach-in" process outlined in the manual. There are a few other quirks to learn about. This is one car where you really do want to read the manual. If you hold the brake before you start the car, I think that's what starts the teach-in; maybe that was your trigger?

Don't repeat this process just for fun, only if you have problems. If I understand right, the Teach-In process takes it back to factory default from whatever the transmission learned, and I think shifting may be a little rougher than usual for a little while. Personally, I think the brake isn't the best trigger for a training/reset process; in the USA we're taught to use the brake before shifting, sometimes before starting.

[ALSRAC]

That happened to me yesterday:



After 3 calls, 2 hours and have try with the procedure mentioned above, the tow truck rescue us:



I'm not sure when we are getting the car back, today is saturday and monday is Memorial day, hopefully we'll get it soon:

[dbwill]

Man, sorry to hear about the problems, but it will give us an opportunity to evaluate the service at Aristo. Hope the baby gets home quickly

[smartgpspro]

Was the car in "manual shift" mode when it was last turned off. Then tried to restart in Park? Could this have caused the trans to not know what gear it was in? The key will turn off even though the car is not in Park.

[Broken Kid]

Originally Posted by esrazor

I had exactly 300 miles on my car when I tried to start it today, in a parking lot, and it wouldn't start. I had already driven it several times today with no problems. Instead of having the gear selected showing in the dash, I had three horizontal bars going across and a warning sound beeping. Called smartusa, was put on hold for a few minutes, then was told my computer didn't know what gear the car was in. They had me put my foot on the brake pedal, turn the key to the on position, move the gear shifter through all of the gears and return it to park, turn off the key, and then restart the car. I actually didn't even turn the key to off because I could tell the problem was fixed as a "P" showed up in the dash. I was very glad it was such an easy fix and that it didn't need to be towed!

Funny, I had almost exactly 300 miles on my car when I had this problem, but I wasn't able to re-teach it, and it's on its way to the shop.

[letsgoskatepool]

alsrac, same thing happened to me and now I am carless as my jeep is in the shop as well... I was stuck over an hour from home and Penske had a driver take me home and the smart to the doctor. Any prognosis on your smart? I had 3k more miles than you but other than that the exact same problem.

[ALSRAC]

Originally Posted by smartgpspro

Was the car in "manual shift" mode when it was last turned off. Then tried to restart in Park? Could this have caused the trans to not know what gear it was in? The key will turn off even though the car is not in Park.

My wife says it was in PArk when she turned off. So I'm not sure what cause the failure, we had the shifter stuck some weeks before this happened. I'm not sure if these 2 things are somehow connected.

[ALSRAC]

Originally Posted by letsgoskatepool

alsrac, same thing happened to me and now I am carless as my jeep is in the shop as well... I was stuck over an hour from home and Penske had a driver take me home and the smart to the doctor. Any prognosis on your smart? I had 3k more miles than you but other than that the exact same problem.

The manager from Aristocrat called and told me that they have to change the gear knob or something like that, they order it and should get it tomorrow, hopefully we'll get our "Little Lice" back home soon.

[letsgoskatepool]

FUNNY! my dealer just called and said something similar but gave me a 5-7 business day delivery date for the part from Germany... you must have just scored the last one! Now I am carless, time to go buy a bike...