Interesting gearbox issue?

[Laichzeit]

Im sure some of you may have come across this before so I am hoping you will be able to help me.
I took the Legnum across some bumpy terrain today(gravel road) drove it round for while afterwards, no problem. Parked it up for 50 mins and went to drive off and while driving home I noticed the gear was stuck in 2nd. So when I put it into tiptronic to try and change it, nothing happens. I rang Mitsi and they said it was going into safe mode? Which means I can drive it home and to nearest service depot.

Well while driving the thing home it decided it had had enough of safe mode and was changing gears again although very bumpy and sometimes delayed.
Considering I went over some pretty rough ground, has anybody got any ideas of what it could be?
cheers

[bradc]

There is a chance that the ECU simply reset itself which would account for the slow gear changes. It is probably worth disconnecting the battery terminals for 10 minutes or so to reset the ECU and get everything back to normal, and pray that everything works again ;)

[Laichzeit]

Cheers, I'll give that a go and see what happens.
I also just found this post on here which might explain it...hopefully:

"Your box is in safe mode, it protects itself from full use until a problem is resolved, If you go to your local mitsy dealer, they will stick their computer on it and it will let them know what is wrong. The gearbox has 3 sensors on it if any one of these is malfunctioning your box will go into safe mode , if you unplug one of these sensors your box will go into safe mode, so don't panic too much just yet. I have been told that the sensor on top of the box is the one that usually malfunctions, costs about 100quid fitted by mitsy, but if you go to them they can read what the car is saying, cheers Louis"

[Paul Beazer]

Might be worth checking the connectors are nice and clean, also make sure they're not loose either.

[richy rich]

also check AFT level

the best way to do this is run the car for about 15m

then park on level ground (with engine running)

run through all the gears a few times

put it in to N


also check the gear selector on top of box

[Laichzeit]

Yea cheers, I'll do that on my next days off.

Update for now: It started the day in 2nd gear again, but once it warmed up it was working fine?? I took it to the Gearbox shop, by then it was working fine so they said it was electrical. I took it to the Mitsi Dealer in NewMraket, Auckland. They did a check and found nothing wrong.
So I'm hoping that a top up with ATF oil might do it. What's the best type to use? And advice on doing it?

[Laichzeit]

Just had this idea pointed out to me. Is it possible that it could be the ATF oil filters that need replacing??

[richy rich]

as you say that it stops when warm i dote it (i also dote now that it is your AFT level but wouldn't hurt to check)

more likely electrical know

[KiwiTT]

Maybe be worth doing a full ATF flush and replenish. Do you know when it was last done ?

[richy rich]

Maybe be worth doing a full ATF flush and replenish. Do you know when it was last done ?
this would be worth doing any way unless done quite resent

oh by the way what AFT do you have in it.

[Laichzeit]

The colour is bright red, so it looks newish. Bought the car mid July - 4000 kms ago and it had been serviced recently. Not entirely sure what ATF is in it currently. I'm going to take it to an AA place soon to have it done anyway just because I'd like to be certain when it was last done. The guy from AA doesn't believe this will necessarily solve my problem though.

I rang another transmission place today and he seemed quite certain that it was dirty connections. This is possible because that unsealed road was pretty dam bad.

On a side note, Mitsubishi called me today and asked how satisfied I was with their service. I told them it was great besides the fact they spent 3 hours to tell me the car is fine and is obviously not...hushed silence anyone?