Citroen C2 VTR refuses to shift down in some scenarios

Question

So far I've found a lot of issues concerning the Sensodrive but nothing really specific to my scenario.

At certain times it refuses to switch gears from 2nd to 1st, it'll try about 5 times (5 clicks) and then show the error 'error in gearbox' (rough translation). This results in me having to, somehow, keep driving in 2nd and hoping it'll fix itself

Most of the time switching into reverse helps but it's pretty random

The garage has no idea what the problem is, so far they've reset the sendodrive and cleaned the actuators but the problem is only occuring more frequently. Any input would be appreciated

Answer 1

A quick google search leads to lots of information about problems with the Citroen Sensodive transmission. It seems that most problems are either caused by the gear actuators or, more seriously, by the gearbox ECU. Since the garage already cleaned the actuators i'd say that the problems are caused by the ECU.

I'd advise reading the info i've linked, there are a lot of things mentioned that you could check to determine the problem. If nothing else can be done then you should contact the Citroen dealer or a specialist on the Sensodrive gearboxes because most garages do not know much about the intrinsic workings of a gearbox ECU.