[-greg-]

There's a lot of good advice (concerning you smart car) for you in this thread. Did any of it work out?

Yes! I have fixed everything but the vibration, although I put the car on the lift and saw that the mounts are torn, so that is good thing (it's not gearbox or clutch), but now I need to order them.

The heater works perfect, I was clogged, as the car was not driven for quite a while.

Changed gearbox oil to Valvoline GL4, felt no difference whatsoever 😂

Fixed horn myself - very easy to take the steering wheel off, dissasamble, find disconnected connector, connect and reassemble.

Passed inspection and all is good for an year!!

Found ambient temperature sensor and it's the same as on any Mercedes, so that's easy to find/fix. I'll do that tomorrow.

Tomorrow I am taking the car to fix a/c (hope just adding freon will do).

I will also wash the car and post some photos. Think it's a very nice looking car

Thank you guys for comments and advises!

 

[emmasdad]

I don't have heated seats. I'm sure seats are fine for most, but I'm 192cm high and I don't fit unless I retract the shade ))

Recline the seat a couple of notches will probably fix you issue!

 

[Smart car]

Recline the seat a couple of notches will probably fix you issue!

I don't really think it's proper but Shaq fits in a Smart car.

 

[colin555]

The whole idea of a high seating height has been there from the beginning of Smart car thinking. It is really for safety, as the idea is less damage to a body with a side impact if you are sitting higher up. The 450 and 451 which I owned have sitting in a high position, I used to step up to sit in these cars, but I notice the 453 which I have now, is definitely a bit lower, although they do have height adjust, it is a lower seating position (about 2 inches) compared to previous models. In fact the space above my head to the roof is a lot higher than the 450 and 451.

 

[twcom]

Cool Lube up the whole suspension. every pivot point. Drive it in manual mode as it is a 5 speed sequential shift manual transmission car don't let the automated clutch system fool you lol.

 

[-greg-]

Recline the seat a couple of notches will probably fix you issue!

Well, I just retracted the shade and it's fine, but it will be a pain during summer. Reclining the seat means either pedals are too close or steering wheel is to far )

I don't really think it's proper but Shaq fits in a Smart car.

Sure, he might, but that does not mean lowering the seat will not help with comfort

Cool Lube up the whole suspension. every pivot point. Drive it in manual mode as it is a 5 speed sequential shift manual transmission car don't let the automated clutch system fool you lol.

I'm "racing" on every drive. High rpm shifts and late braking. This car is lot of fun )

 

[Export Guru]

I don't really think it's proper but Shaq fits in a Smart car.

Shaq's car was modified by the smart dealer in Orlando. I asked the mechanic and he told me it required some mods.

 

[-greg-]

OK, so I did the oil and filter change, air filter change and full diagnostic of the vehicle. The diagnostics guy said he did some kind of software update too (although I have no idea what kind). He said the CEL might come on, because of the ambient air temperature sensor misreading temperature (it thinks its 109F all the time, sometimes even goes to 110F. in reality its 10 degrees Celsius, that should be about 50F at most), although I have no idea what connection does it have with the engine. The Torque app on my phone reads air intake temperature perfectly, so why would engine control module care about the ambient temperature, is a real puzzle to me.

Somehow vibrations went away too. It still vibrates, but it is muted by very large margin. It is hard to pinpoint why, because we changed fluid in engine and gearbox, changed the spark plugs, air filter and drove about 200 miles on premium gasoline (just to be sure that the fuel was correct), also I have used some fuel additive from LiquiMolly that said it would clean the injectors (which I honestly doubt it, but still, how bad can it be?).

When changing oil, we discovered that the gearbox mount is shot. I somehow found the part but did not have time to change it. Motor mounts seem OK. The testing procedure was applying gas with handbrake on in D and R and in both cases engine did not budge. It seems, previous two mechanics were correct when saying the mounts are good, but it may be that the mounts are just old and transmit more vibration that they should. Anyway, there are none for sale at any shop or garage, so I don't know if it is worth to purchase them on Ebay or any USA/UK store and then bother with custom clearances and stuff like that.

Another thing is that we could not find the Power Steering Motor. There does not seem to be a part like that on a car. This is very interesting, because the steering wheel is heavier when the car is running and lighter when the car is turned off. I have never encountered anything like that and I am very confused. I thought it was an issue with resistance of a bad electric motor, but there isn't one, so... Any suggestions of this front would be much appreciated.

 

[Jeb Baker]

From the 2008 service manual, "Rackandpinion steering The smart fortwo features rackandpinion steering as standard. The steering ratio is 22:1. Electric power steering EPS (special equipment) Electric Power Steering (EPS) is available as special equipment. The steering ratio is 21:1. The tasks of the EPS system are as follows: • Power assistance with Servotronic • Adaptation of the steering forces • Active steering centering Steering General Electric Power Steering (EPS) is a direct steering system with integral speeddependent power assis tance and active steering centering. This ensures that steering wheel forces remain low when the vehicle is being maneuvered. An electromechanical system offers the following advantages compared to a conventional hydraulic power steering system: • Less weight and smaller installation space • Greater degree of freedom to adjust the steering assistance • Reduced fuel consumption. EPS operates without hydraulic components such as pumps, reservoirs, coolers, lines and hydraulic fluid, and is therefore a dry, environmentally compatible system."

PM me if you want the manual. The link is probably here on the forum too, somewhere... 🤷‍♂️

 

[jwight]

M19 is the motor...

The part does exist, should be easy to find in Europe, but here's a US link: 2008-2016 Smart Fortwo Motor 451540008864 | MB Online Parts

 

[colin555]

In the UK only 5% of 451's had power steering, not sure of the percentage in the USA, but it was a cost optional extra, so must be a low percentage. My 451 Cdi did not have power steering, and it was very heavy steering while doing a 3 point turn at slow speed, which ended up being a 7 point turn to turn around. You needed powerful arms like Arnold Schwarzenegger LOL. Once you got up to speed on the road you did not need power steering, steering was fine. I now have a 453, and all have power steering.

 

[-greg-]

I found a manual on this forum but thank you for your offer!
I honestly thought it all passion models had the electric power steering but it seems mine has not. I still don't understand why the wheel is lighter when the car is off but it seems I have to live with it.

Meanwhile we change the gearbox mount and all the vibrations are gone apart from usual vibration from 3-cylinder engine.

We also changed the ambient temperature sensor but the car still thinks is 110° outside. It must be something in the wiring. I will try to check that out on Saturday.

Thank you everybody for your time and help. I will definitely post the update

 

[-greg-]

Quick update: We have a restriction to be outside of home after 9PM here and I left work at 8:45 PM, so I pushed my Smart to the most limit. Everything seemed fine, before I reached home and engaged Reverse - got quite noticeable bump... Engaged Drive, one more bump. As if I have torn the gearbox mount that we replaced this very morning! I will not be able to go to the garage tomorrow (that will be too much to ask for another half day off this week), but I will need to check it as soon as possible. This car seems to be even weirder than my Jaguar )

EDIT: I started the car and went to work without any issues. No kicking, no bumping from the engine. After driving on the limit for about 15 minutes, is there a possibility that the clutch overheated?

 

[twcom]

Read everything you can on the transmission. Relearn for the Smart car and Mercedes cars. The adaptive properties of the trans/clutch system of the Smart causes it to adjust to a hard shift after a you drive it with high rev shifts. Like a hard on ramp launch will cause a fast clutch release bang every time you ease of the brake pedal from a stand still. Bang like some one kicked the back of your seat.. So study that relearn process. Once you reset it remember to respect first to second and second to third shift rev points to keep that bang from recurring.

 

[jetfuel]

...don’t know about you guys....but if a hear or feel like some one kicked the back of the seat every time I shift hard there are only two things to do....have the issue looked at or get whoever is behind the seat off the car...

jetfuel...just saying...

 

[Smart car]

OR... Just drive it like you stole it and enjoy the hard race car shifts!!

 

[Jeb Baker]

Quick update: We have a restriction to be outside of home after 9PM here and I left work at 8:45 PM, so I pushed my Smart to the most limit. Everything seemed fine, before I reached home and engaged Reverse - got quite noticeable bump... Engaged Drive, one more bump. As if I have torn the gearbox mount that we replaced this very morning! I will not be able to go to the garage tomorrow (that will be too much to ask for another half day off this week), but I will need to check it as soon as possible. This car seems to be even weirder than my Jaguar )

EDIT: I started the car and went to work without any issues. No kicking, no bumping from the engine. After driving on the limit for about 15 minutes, is there a possibility that the clutch overheated?

You need to do and remember to do again when needed: throttle body reset.
Your hard accelerating has caused the car to change it's shifting and throttle points. Resetting it will calm it down, no more hard "bang". Give it a try:

1. Insert key and just turn it to position 1 so the dashboard lights up but don't start the engine.
2. Press and hold the accelerator pedal all the way to the floor (including kickdown).
3. Continue holding the pedal down for a full 5 seconds and turn the key back to 0 (off).
4. Now release the accelerator pedal.
5. Wait a minute or so (I let all the dash lights go out and then some) before starting your car.
6. It should now be able to go gently into reverse or drive and do this at a quiet idle (and no bang!)

I used to do this all the time on my 2008 451, after driving in aggressive commuter traffic. Sometimes I got too impatient with the procedure and didn't wait long enough before restarting. So I'd have to try again. But I always got it to work. Others here claim it never worked for them. I no longer have the car, so I'm working from how I remember doing it.

 

[jwight]

Just curious, where did the throttle body reset procedure originate? I saw the Evilution article and even Kane says it may be a placebo effect. Just wondering if anyone has found a verified source?

 

[Jeb Baker]

Quick google search shows this method is not unique to smart cars, but used on other cars as well, including MB & BMW. AKA Transmission adaptive shifting.

a typical MB link: Reset Transmission Adaptive Shifting

On this forum the earliest i found was 2010 by donnyonee, who found it on a uk smart roadster forum: https://www.smartcarofamerica.com/threads/throttle-body-reset.30296/

 

[jwight]

Thanks, and I've seen those also but none of them seem to be backed up by any factual data from smart. The M-B link contains this sentence: "This procedure applies to all Mercedes-Benz that come with the 5-speed 722.6 and 7 -speed 722.9." Those are true automatic transmissions, as opposed to our 451 5-speed automated manual transmissions. IMHO this reset procedure is an urban legend but if it makes people feel better, have at it. YMMV, of course.