AR4 GEARBOX

[szocspeti]

hi, i am a renault 25 posessor from romania, cluj-napoca, i have bought not long ago my R25 TX, in very good shape, but with one small problem. The AR4 Gearbox is not always functioning ..
sometimes it works (and if it works, than it works well ..) but there are times, when it won't shift at all .. i mean i cant even start from "P", not even in D,1,2 .. so if it doesn't work it goes only in "R" .. in all other gears it just REW up .. like in "N". anyone any ideas ? please write me, or IM-me per yahoo messenger under "kisjezus".

thanx alot in advance,

peter

[Nico den Haak]

Hello Peter,

It's possible your AR4 can't build up enough oilpressure inside because of an inside loss of pressure. You need an XR25 to measure the inside oilpressure during a drive. Most common faults i know of are a torn round thing made of rubber which i can't say in English. It's round, and small pieces of rubber brake out of the edges. It's part of a clutch, and clutch E3 is the one who brakes down the most. Also the drum can torn at the bottom. The reverse gear is seperate, and still works then.

It's really a specialists work to get the AR4 back in shape again. A lot of things can go wrong when you decide to have a go at it yourself. When the inside pressure loss is only a minimum, you can always try to add an additive like leakwek to the atf oil. It makes the rubber things inside more soft, if they just got to hard over the past 15 years. But this only has a chanche of working when nothing else is serieusly wrong with your transmission.

Good luck!

Best regards,

Nico den Haak.

[szocspeti]

Hello Nico,

thank you for your quick reply, it was the thing i feared the most (the stuff with the "It's really a specialists work to get the AR4 back in shape again") because here in romania, there are only 2-3 recognized specialists who handle AT even the people at the Renault-Representation said that they can't repair it, and they wouldnt even look at it, because they do not have the possibility to fix automatic transmissions, just to replace them, and since the AR4 is not buld anymore, i'm stuck with my problems.
the 2-3 guys i was talking about, i have spoken to them on the phone, the closest to my region is at 300km (so i suppose i have to tow my car thill there, and that costs alot, because i don't want to risk starting with it, and having to look at it as it breaks down on the road), so he said that a general repair for an AR4 Transmission is about 1300 euros, money wich i don't have. so i figured, someone here can give me a firendly advice, about how to fix it (i figured is not that much of a big deal, because it works mostly, it just breaks down a few times)

i noticed here a previous post, from "Mathijs" i thing, with the title "AR4 automaat, stuk is niet altijd stuk... " which i still don't know what it means (except the word "stuk" wich i belive is "stuck") and i saw the photo of a spare-part and i figured that maybe the guy had the same problem as i, and he fixed it somehow. which i think he managed, because at the end he says something like "en de automaat functioneerd inderdaad" .. inderdaad i think it meens "in der taat" in german wich means indeed

can you tell me what the 2 posts containing the "AR4" word were about ? can you please give me a few links to handbooks, or some kind of doccumentation about R25 ? that would be a great help ..

in the mean time i will start to save money, for the reparation, but i'm still hopeing it would cost me less then 1000 euro (

take care, and thanks in advance..

Peter

[hans]

not bad peter, inderdaad means indeed , only with stuck you got it wrong. "Stuk" in dutch means broken... In short Mathijs made a manual to replace the sensor witch controls the pressure of the AT. As he expains the symptoms of a faulty sensor are a bit of leakage at the connector and the engine is running on its emergency program. Hardly the case with you.
I think it is better for you to find a "new" AT at the scrapyard, at least much cheaper..
nice car by the way

[szocspeti]

it's nice to see that there are so many people willing to help. thanx alot again for the advices. hans you said something about the engine is running it's "emergency" program. what did u meen by this ? strangely in the past days D,2 doesnt work anymore, and instead of it 1,R work fine. i can't explain to me what there's wrong. D only works if i accelerate up for about 30-40km/h in gear position 1, and then slide the shifter quickly upto D, then it begins towork & shift normally, also when i try to start from D,2 and accelerate, the engine rews up and sometimes there are strange (knicking) sounds comming from under the hood .. but as i say, when i have a peace of road ahead me, i just accelerate in 1, shift over to D, and then the gearbox works fine, until i have to make a full stop again (((( can u tell me where that sensor is located, and what the price of it is? and now that you say, i also noticed a minor leakage (like a 25cent coin) under the car, but i looked up to the engine and gearbox, and i can't find out where it's from...

hans, nico ? anyone ? help ?

"nice car by the way" -> i managed to buy myself the car about a few months ago from an older man (64yrs) who was had bought the car in 1989 from france, from the factory .. and it was in best shape, original colors, everything working on it (every little light inside, everything) the whole electrical system & all the other parts are like it came out from the factory, and to my surprise it has just 118.450 km and there are correct, every service intake was made at the Renault-Representance, with everything written into the servicebook. but it has this fault with the gearbox from the begining (

what i have made ? 15" BBS 5star Rims, 205" R15 Goodyear Tyres, Shading the windows, exchanged the car stereo to a SONY MP3 (by the way, can one manage to connect the wheel-audio-controle to another stereo, besides the renault-factory one ??) and put customized HERTZ special car audio sound system in it, with 6x250w + 350w Sub + amplifyer
and normaly.. filled the tank with gasoline :p

thanx guys again for your posts ...

respect, peter

[hans]

for most models car stereo's there are adapters to connect to the wheel audio control. I have no clue of the price though..
The emergency program is the program in the control unit of the AT. As soon as this control unit notices that there's something wrong with the AT, it will shift to a program witch will enable you to drive to the garage. I don't know exactly how it works Can't help you there, I'm sorry.

[Carel]

Hi Peter,

It sounds to me you have a problem with the mechanical gearshift mechanism. Maybe the cable is bad, or stuck, or the internal selector switch has a defect.

what you could check yourself is the following: the gearshift is connected to the gearbox via a cable. Inside the gearbox this cables moves a so-called "selector switch". It can be the case that the cable is too tight (or too loose), causing the selector switch to be in the wrong position.

You can just adjust this under the car, normally, when the gear shift is in "P", there should be a little slack in the outer cables, about 1 mm. If it is more (or less) you can remove a locking from the cable at the gearbox and adjust the tension. See AR4 selector cable.

For a better check you have to remove the oil, take away the carterpan and oil filter(this can be done without removing the gearbox from the car) and put the gearshift in "N". You can see the selectorswitch move now. Change the gears from N to to R, and to D. The movement must now be about 5,5 mm, see AR4 Clearance.

With the last action you need of course help and you have the advantage that you can check the oil, and renew it along with the filter, that can never hurt. A warning though: there is a special procedure to check the oil level, which can only be done in the Renault garage with an XR25. So measure how much oil you take out and fill with exactly that amount.
Expect to have at least 3 liters coming out, if it is less, you should have it checked afterwards at the garage. The AR4 is known to be somewhat critical on the oil level.

Some questions coming up after writing this: can you move the gear shift when the engine is not running? Does it go "heavy"? Do you get a warning light in your dashboard when changing (or trying to change) gears?

Best regards,

Carel