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Posted on Apr 27, 2009
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Smart Car has Readout of 3 horizontal lines with gear selection

The car showns three lines on the display panel which occurs during gear selection. It has been into a garage and electrical faults were reset but no further work was done as this was not a Smart garage. At present the car will run for a while but the problem then reoccurs. Unfortunately the battery is no longer holding a charge. I think there might be a connection between the gear selection fault and the battery.
Can you help me please?

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  • chrissiemann Apr 27, 2009

    The year of this vehicle is 2003, but the site only gave me the choice of 2008. The battery was changed, and the problem reoccurred. It gives the 3 lines on the electronic display. It will run for a while then quits. I haven't been able to measure the output of the alternator.

  • Anonymous May 05, 2009

    well i didnt have any problem at all until i took my smart car 03 53 plate coupe passion to a mercedes dealership for a service a week ago, was informed it needed new brake fluid on top of service, when driving it away from car sales the brakes squeaked then on motorway home it didnt seem to have the umph that it had before the service then over the course of the week the display would read r for reverse or a or whatever i put it in but car wouldnt move a noise underneath at the time then it wouldnt start at all obviously as it wasnt in the gear it said it was in, phoned up mercedes and i`m convinced they have lodged or knocked something off during the service but they came and put a coputer thing on it and say its the clutch activator and may either need adjusting or renewing or may need a new clutch i have only had my little car four months which had had a srrvice before i bought it plus a years mot as well as the mecedes service, and now i have all this trouble, can anyone suggest whats happened and should i be forking out for extra things when its only gone wrong since this service.

  • pklit May 13, 2009

    3 lines through "P" means the computer doesn't know in what gear the transmission is. I've read several ways of resetting this... one was to disconnect the battery for half an hour... if that doesn't help, you could try to shift through all the gears a few times while holding the brake, or you could try opening/closing the doorlock several times... either one of these have helped me fix this problem before. I usually get this error when the engine breaks down.
    Right now I have another similar problem, only this time I get 1 horizontal line.. haven't been able to fix that yet

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Hi there I just had a similar thing happen to me drove up the motorway and just as I came off at WSM I couldn't find any gear. The dredid 3 lines came up on the dash and a grinding noise from the back. I had to get the rescue service to take me back down to cornwall and dropped it at the garage. Just got it back the garage said they could not find the problem but they flushed the oil and fluids and bobs your uncle. Only time will tell if its ok but they did say sometimes the gears can stick and it just needs cleaning through. Is this true I don't know but all seems good now just makes me wonder it can happen again. It's got full service and was serviced last 2 months ago 53 passion. I did hear and read its common for the selector to go but I don't know anyone else with a smart car to ask. Anyway that's my woes I hope this anyone in a similar situation.

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  • Posted on Feb 03, 2019
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I have a 2006 Passion and my 3 bars of ***** started about 2 months ago and come up while I am driving leaving me stuck in neutral. I have to pull over to the side of the road, completely shut the car down and then start it back up! I have that happen 2-3 times in one driving session and then it goes weeks before it happens again. The car is old...but she keeps on going!!

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Wether it fixes the origonal problem or not the condition of the battery and its charging system is very important. todays car will not opperate correctly if the battery doesn't hold a charge(should be at 12.6volts) and the alt. should be charging between 13.5 and 14volts.

  • labakis1 May 30, 2010

    1.check the battery as redbear said and the connections from the battery.
    2.check , clean, spray with chain grease the solenoid of gear selection.
    3.check ,clean, spray with contact cleaner the gear position sensor and the plugs- wires of it.
    4.the ATF fluid doesn't live forever maybe its time to change it.

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