…seen it before…a few times as a matter of fact…
…cleaning the shifting motors fixed it…
…you could try the re-learn the transmission procedure but I doubt it will fix it….

key on …foot on brake…slowly select all gears including going to the left ( manual) with the lever giving a little time in between selections…
…all the way back to park ….key off...
jetfuel…btdtft

 

Flashing D and wrenches mean that the car thinks there's a transmission problem.

Be careful asking one of the Smart Facebook groups this because they'll tell you the car needs an engine oil change. The regular maintenance counter does not flash the gear indicator. lol

Anyway, I've experienced this in two of my 451s before. In my case, disconnecting the battery for a few minutes cleared the issue and it didn't come back. If it comes back, then yeah, you're looking at actual work like cleaning the shift motors.

 

I appreciate the help the next thing.I need to do is figure out how to clean the shift motors.Is that the actuator that you're talking about ?
Thank you,
Matt

 

Shift motor teardown (and maybe someday, rebuild)

Long story short, my 2008 Smart Fortwo I had recently purchased would occasionally throw 3 bars, usually shortly after starting it and typically when shifting into drive, but not always. Sometimes it would throw 3 bars from the start, sometimes it would go a few days, even a few weeks one time...

www.smartcarofamerica.com

jetfuel….good luck

 

ive seen this one a few times myself, and on the last one i saw it on, i pulled the xentry out and checked on it, according to the "counter" it had hit a threshold of "possible" transmission issues and this is kinda the final warning before it goes into self preservation mode

shift motor is still the likely culprit, but the actuator can also do it, but is typicaly acompanied by other issues