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Warning: Clutch Protection message after towing (short distance, fwiw)

225 Views 3 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  Richnjohn
I am fairly new to towing the 453 and encountered a new warning after completing a 4 mile tow and am wondering what I did wrong.

I got home and was trying to restore car to pre-tow state and noticed that I could not get the ignition to turn on. Also could not move gearshift out of manual shift mode. Also steering wheel was locked (maybe because I couldn't get the ignition to engage).

I sat and wondered about it for a few minutes. Tried disconnecting battery and reconnecting a couple of times. nothing. After fussing with it for a little while (because doing the same thing and expecting a different result isn't ALWAYS insane) the ignition engaged and I was able to put the vehicle in park. Then when I went to put the car in drive I got a message about Clutch Protection and referral to owners manual. I looked in manual and it was very unclear where the information might be (no "Clutch" in index, for example).

Finally, I decided that the car to move car and deal with it after everything was secure and ... message was gone.

I am thinking that I must have missed a step in tow setup ... maybe didn't wait long enough between steps or something. I am pretty sure I did all the steps, but I did say I am new to this.

Any words of wisdom? Any clues where to find in manual? How concerned should I be? How can I make sure this doesn't happen again?

Thanks for anything you can tell me.
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I had the same issue. I repeated the steps and made sure I waited the 30 seconds for the DCT to get into proper position, not as soon as the 6 showed in the dash. Just follow the steps exactly again going to tow ready and back. The warning sign will remain for a few starts but disappeared after 3 starts. Good luck. Scary stuff, for sure.
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I had the same issue. I repeated the steps and made sure I waited the 30 seconds for the DCT to get into proper position, not as soon as the 6 showed in the dash. Just follow the steps exactly again going to tow ready and back. The warning sign will remain for a few starts but disappeared after 3 starts. Good luck. Scary stuff, for sure.
That is exactly what I wanted to hear. Makes some sense. Take all instructions seriously! :)
I haven’t received the warning but have had the shifter and ignition lock when I move either of them before reconnecting the battery. Always connect the battery first then the ignition, wait until the transmission gets done making its engaging noises then move the shifter back to park. The instructions don’t say to listen for the engagement noises but the transmission seems happier when you do. Even when I am not towing, I wait for the transmission to engage before turning the ignition to the start position. It may be my imagination but the computer controlled stuff seems to be happier if you let it all boot up before trying to start the car.
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