Clutch temperature high

[AR Cooper]

Hello everyone,
I'm hoping there is someone out there that works for Vauxhall or Peugeot as a Master Technician, or a very clever auto electrician/coding specialist that can help to solve my dilemma:

I have a 21 plate Elite Nav 1.2 petrol with 41k miles.

When I bought the car last November, I had the car serviced with genuine Vauxhall oils/components and also scanned to see if anything could be learned, as I have a “clutch temp high, limit use of pedal” warning appearing, but only when using 6th gear? It does not generate any error codes. I think this warning is generated if clutch slip is detected. I don't think there is a dedicated clutch temp sensor?

As I understand it, the car imagines clutch slip if the calculation of ratios between road speed, wheel size (circumference) & speed, gear ratio etc don’t add up. There’s probably a lot of other parameters involved, I haven’t yet seen a good (full) explanation or a possible cure. Can anyone help me to understand how this warning gets triggered?

I also tried to promote some clutch slip by driving off and/or accelerating in a high gear, but no sign of any slip.

I have also driven the car in all gears with a diagnostic tester connected for live data stream of the road speed sensors etc, (all ok and match). I had the clutch & flywheel relearn process performed to see if it would clear it? (no luck).

When it comes on after about 1 minute of 6th gear driving, it also triggers an engine fan to operate, which I believe is correct as it thinks there is a temp issue.

It resets when the ignition is turned off, or if I revert to lower gears for a while, which suggests some corrupt data is being overwritten and once that happens the warning stops. Maybe the Ratio 6 data is incorrect? The engine spec. is ENG 1.2 EB2ADTS (O3S) and gearbox spec. is TRANS-MAN 6 SPD 189MM MB6 PSA.

I get the annoying chime unless I avoid 6th gear, plus it disables the speed limiter and cruise functions, which work fine if not in 6th gear "clutch warning" mode.

I have also noticed that the shift indicator in the dash extinguishes immediately in all gears except 6th, which takes about 4-5 seconds to recognise its in top gear and go out.

Does anyone know anything about the logic, where this data is stored (which module) or any other ideas that I can try to see if this cures the warning trigger?

Thanks in advance.

[GiveMeABreak]

We don't support any Vauxhall vehicles here generally speaking, regardless if they are part of the same group and may share components, sorry, and I'm moving this out of the DS Forum to the 'Common Problems and Fixes Forum'

However, I recognise the symptoms you describe and this will 99% be down to a wheel speed sensor. Your scan tool is likely incapable of reading the more advanced codes or communicating with all ECUs on the vehicle and may be why you are not getting a fault code - or the fault may be intermittent.

Next, there is no clutch temp. sensor.
Yes the ESP system determines perceived 'overheating clutch' rom the wheel speed sensor data.
Because of this, the engine ECU will also trigger the engine fan to high speed and the dashboard warning.
This may also cause ESP warnings, constant dashboard messages about other systems, cruise control, etc.

It will very likely be one of the wheel speed sensors. Once you have determined which one using a professional level diagnostic tool, and have it replaced, that will generally be the end of the problem.

If you have Sat Nav, it will likely try routing you to the nearest dealership too!

[RichardW]

I don't think a wheel speed sensor in this case, Marc, as it's repeatable in 6th only. We had another thread like this a while back, but not sure it was ever solved. It has to be an incorrectly programmed gear ratio - but no idea how that data is stored or whether it can be changed. It might be something that needs to be looked at by an ECU tuning specialist to see if they can code it out.

Although, another thought...are you running the correct sized tyres, and does this match the value programmed in the car?

[GiveMeABreak]

Good point Richard - that's another possibility - has the OP changed any settings with his diagnostic tool?

[GiveMeABreak]

I really think this is a dealer issue as it may be to do with the gearbox ratio programming being incorrect - but as said, I can't help you with this vehicle as we do not have access to Vauxhall data regardless of common engines / components / being part of Stellantis group. Systems are Marque specific and we do not support Vauxhall vehicles.

I've relocated this to the Off Topic Chat Lounge out of the main technical Forums as we don't want to encourage further requests from owners of non PSA / DS Auto vehicles