Thread: Transmission fault/HDC fault

Consider disconnecting both front LED's. I do not know how a LED illuminates but it must be more complicated than a toaster element, basically what a filament bulb is.

A LED even when OK, inserted in the rear cluster can do strange things; but in the front and as supplemental signalling and when it is in good condition may not be seen by the monitoring systems. If however one of those LED's is defective, who knows what kind of signals it may be sending out.

You are making progress - yes probably the starting problem is related to the interlock - how one is supposed to figure out all these problems is beyond me.

Toyota had a similar problem that led to a recall of over two hundred thousand vehicles in the States - in this case, something about the brake light switch not telling the shift interlock it was OK for the engine to start.

Bought a set of rear bulbs today from LR. Thought I'd take the time and test each one.
Firstly, managed to recreate the faults and failure to start very easily and regularly. Moved the car into the garage as it started to rain and repeated tests. Still faulting and failing to start regularly.
Removed the RH side rear light cluster and the first tail/brake globe I check is a non genuine REPCO globe. Replaced it with a genuine globe and car starts perfectly at least 10 times and I haven't seen any faults. Stopped at replacing this globe only. Very early to tell but positive that I only changed 1 thing and the car hasn't faulted since.

I presume the Repco bulb appeared to be working fine. As such, if you can, with an ohm meter, perhaps take a reading of the resistance of each of two filaments and then compare the readings to those of your other new genuine bulbs.

I have a theory that while the non genuine bulbs appear to illuminate OK, that the filaments have a significantly different resistance, (perhaps only when illuminated however), than genuine; the difference is enough to cause problems.

I see it as a quality control thing; the off spec probably come from the same plant as the genuine but the off spec are not crushed, they are sold as "or equal".

Do the faults return if the globe is refitted? If not then its likely poor contact from weathering/corrosion has been the cause. Don't discount the possibility that wiring was moved which may turn out to be a poor earth to the body.

Graeme,
absolutely agree about retesting again and I have kept and labeled the suspect globe. I didn't want to repeat the test last night as I had started the car a dozen times in a short period. I'll see how it performs for the next few days and on the weekend will test the old globe again.

Bbyer,
I'll see if I can get some OHM measurements. Not sure if my meter does this though

Just had a message from the home front, car didn't start first time but did on the 2nd attempt.
Wonder if the car sitting overnight and possibly the battery draining slightly is having an impact? Despite having the battery checked a couple of times it is something that definately degrades over time and in my mind something which could cause a increasingly frequent problem. I also have a Traxide dual battery setup so possibly the 2nd battery is helping to keep the car going or affecting it.

When I was having my starting problems, every night I put my starting battery on the CTEK; also I have the Traxide system as well.

There is an argument for disconnecting the hot wire between the two batteries as the Traxide kind of kicks in and helps a weak starting battery and hence can mask a main battery problem. In your case, I do not think there is a main battery problem but there still could be a starter motor problem.

Ultimately my starting problem ended up being the solved by replacing the starter motor. I think the actual fault was with the starter solenoid rather than the motor portion. The distinction would be academic but I mention it as that was why the problem never showed what I call normal starter motor trouble characteristics - spinning of the Bendix etc or the click - well I did get the click now that I think of it but never when the battery was full up.

I also did not get any HDC messages - well I did on occasion until I replaced the brake light switch. I always use OEM bulbs - always did so in my Chev's and the like previously as aftermarket bulbs are to me, always in question.

I think you are getting close to resolving the problem.

Yep, good point. I may have solved the HDC problems (time will tell) but still have an outstanding starting problem which could be completely unrelated. Having two different problems at once always confuses issues if you are conviced they are related.