This is a long story. I have a 450, the birth year 2003. The 3 bars problem came the first time last July. Together with the 3 bars, the interior light can not be swithed off. It stays all the time on, even after starting the engine. But the light is a little bit dim. The light switch, in the middle of the console, stays also on unless being plugged out and disconnected.

Due to the two prolembs, I have visited the local smart center millions of times....and now I know everybody there...but till now they have NOT found the exact problem yet...

Since last July, at the Smart Center they exchanged my SE-drive, updated the bord computer, and exchanged the SAM. Every time something was exchanged, the 3 bars disppeared for a short time, i.e. several weeks, and then came back again!

Two weeks ago, it happened again. After one-week checking, the garage suggested me exchanging a new "main cable harness"(is this the correct name? it is called Hauptleitungssatz in German). It costs 1900 Euro! But from the conversion with the technician, I read some uncertainty out of his eyes.....

The weirdest part of the story is that my smartie runs still smoothly in the automatic mode with the 3 bars in the display! Every time I turn the key into position 1, it beeps and 3 bars appear, but after I start engine it stops and displays the correct "N", even "R" when I shift to reverse. But, when I shift to left (to forward), it beeps again and 3 bars appear again. After beeping about 5 seconds, it stops. Then it runs and shifts in automatic mode without any problem...just with 3 bars blinking in the display instead of a "A".

Has anybody some similar experience? Any ideas are appreciated.

Hi,

It sounds like you have two completely different problems:

The first one with the 3 bars, have a look at this:

http://www.Evilution.co.uk/index.php?id=168

The second one sounds like you have door switch which thinks it is open! The rear tail gate has a switch to tell the ECU that it is closed as well as the two doors.
I think the doors have rotary switches set up with the door hinges, so you might have to take the doors off to find them and see if they need cleaning / replacing. The rear hatch I one I think is in the lower half along with the locking sytem in there.

Regards,

John

Thank you for your help, John.

I have read the web page of 3 bars on Evilution. My smartie has been examined several times in the local Smart Center. They checked the gear motor, actuator, cables, changed the Se-drive, battery, SAM, and so on....

As for the interior light, if the smartie thinks the door is open, the light should be as bright as normal. But it is apparently dimmer than normal...when I manually turn it on using the switch, it then becomes brighter... when I switch it off again, it is not off but just becomes dimmer.... This is reallly weird~~~~

Ok,

From what you are saying, it maybe that you have a bad earth cable!

Check the battery negative connection, Check the earth connection near the battery.
Then in the engine bay,
Remove the earth cable at both ends and make sure the mounting points are clean, before putting the cable back on again - maybe even replace the earth strap.
Now just remember there are 2 - yes, two earth straps in the engine bay. There is a big one connecting the bodywork tot he gearbox and a smaller one connected to the ignition coils.

The fact you have power going to interior lights when no power should be reaching the bulbs does suggest you have a broken piece of insulation on a cable which is connecting power through to the wrong circuit.

If you leave the car switched off with the doors open, after a few minutes the ECU will switch to low power setting which switches off the interior lights. If the lights remain on, then using a multimeter, you sholuld be able to trace the wires from the interior light above the rear door, which should lead you eventually to where it is getting power from.

I do not think you need a "whole main wiring loom" which the garage is trying to get you to buy. What you need is a Vehicle electrician!

Regards,

john

Thank you so much, John.
I will follow your instructions to have a thorough check this week. I have just asked a friend to help me, who is good at vehicles. And he is an electrician!

Actually I have asked my Smart Center to check the wires, but they were reluctant to do that because it's time-consuming...

Again thank you very much for your help, I will report my checking result later.

I think those two problems are related. Most likely the positive feed to the interior light is shorted to one of the cables for the SE drive. Opening out sections of the central harness is the only way to verify this. Try removing fuse for interior light and check if the 3 bars are still there. Remove interior bulb next and check if still 3 bars. If 3 bars dissappears then the problem will be short in your harness.

Thank you both very much for your help and hints.

Today we have found the problem. In the main wiring loom (harness), the tube for the rear window wiper water is broken. A screw to fix the armrest went into the harness and broke the water tube and some wires. You can then image, every time I hit the lever for the rear wiper water, the water came out in the middle under the seat. The carpet is so wet, full of wiper water. The wire for the roof light is also broken. We then fixed all the broken wires and isolated the others with broken straps. The 3 bars are then gone.

However, another error came out. The LED of motor became on after I started the car. With the motor LED on, the car still ran, but sometimes, especially when it started to move, it rushed and I could hear a big noise from the clutch. It seems the clutch didn't work properly. Sometimes it even just remained in idle gear, and shifting didn't work at all, so I had to restart the engine then I could get into the gear. The error code was later read using the computer in the Smart Center. The error codes are the followings.

P2034 Gear box: gear selector lever
P2022 Clutch system error
P202A Gear not shiftable on closed clutch

Any idea of these error codes? Thank you very much.

Stiff clutch actuator perhaps. Best way to sort that out is to remove the actuator, pull off rod out of socket, remove grommet, flush out the internal mechanism, let it dry out and apply white grease liberally. Let the white grease flash off for about an hour before refitting rod and grommet. Place tie wrap on grommet to ensure better seal.
Inspect the cable to clutch actuator for any scuffing or obvious damage whilst you are at it.

Thank you so much for the help, tolsen . Today afternoon, my friend helped me remove the actuator and open it. Everything seems ok, then we refitted it back, a little bit (1-2 mm) closer to the clutch than before. Before we did this, it always ran a few kilometers normally and then the clutch didn't work properly. It seemed that the clutch could not work when the motor became warm. After refitting the actuator, the smartie seemed running as normal, at least the clutch was still working after a few kilometer test driving. Hope the problem is fixed.

But today we didn't apply new grease in the actuator (didn't have any in the hobby garage ), maybe we should do that tomorrow.

Again, thank you very much for your help.