New battery & Alternator causing Trans. Failsafe Prog
 

Voltage should drop when load is added.

If dash voltage stays mid 13 your alternator is working.

Reset transmission:

Key to position 2
Hold down pedal 30 seconds
You will hear a noise and the process is done.

When my alternator power cord was loose I needed to do this process to get my transmission out of permanent third gear.

I'm not 100% sure that was the process as I didn't memorize, just Google n go but I remembered it was simple and the newer reset procedure is closer to a road side sobriety test

Pretty sure the reverse is true - the BC voltmeter reads lower than the real voltage. It's is on my car and I've heard other say the same.

BC = 13.8v
Fluke meter on jump terminal = 14.2v

This "reset" has been proven to be bogus. At best it forces the transmission into "sport mode" which often gives the impression of better shifting etc.

But while it's not actually resetting anything, some folk swear it helps, so there's no reason to not try it.... I've tried it several times myself, as an experiment, before I started telling people it is bogus. Nothing. No noises, no change in shift behaviour, nada....

There's a similar myth about TPS resets on my motorcycle (a BMW too as it happens) that is all over the internet. It too is bogus; the TPS is baselined every time you turn on the ignition.

Do you have a suggestion on what I can try here? I'm trying to be patient, and wait for answers here, but its now getting to 4 months off the road :(

A summary:

• New alternator installed
• Driving with old battery (flat, jump started) and new alternator drove WEAK but did not trigger a trans failsafe
• New battery bought. Trans fail-safe prog error occurs
• When I disconnect the MAF, the engine still runs
• Using old battery now also causes the trans failsafe
• I've cleared the Fail Safe code using the ODB, but it immediately comes back on
• My cigarette lighter sparked/fused when I plugged in a USB adapter

My fail safe light went out immediately and my transmission started shifting normally immediately. Turning the car off and on a few times did not work.

The initial cause would have to be removed off course. In my case installing the nut on the alternator cable.


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Fluke meter reads 13.6 to 13.8 on mine and the bc reads 14.7 to 14.9.

What does fluke read at the cig socket?


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That's where I tested it at. The cig led meter I have reads within .5 of the fluke there too.

I was referring to wpoll showing 0.5v difference to the jump terminal. That wouldn't surprise me. The 1v difference from the fluke to the BC explains why I use fluke.

I once took a pic of my fluke 87V and a $20 DMM measuring the voltage on the same battery. One read 4.32 the other 4.23. An unbelievable error %!

I took a picture to share online with the caption "why I use fluke". Some wise ass replies "how do you know the fluke is the accurate one".

I pulled out my 87 and 87III put them all into precision mode and all three 87s read within 0.001v the same reading, two were identical. Of course the same wise ass says maybe they all are wrong. Funny guy.

I use an Innova 3320. It is not necessary to spend hundreds of dollars to have an accurate multimeter. Why do you have 3 flukes? That's over a grand in multimeters. Can only look at one at a time. Over many decades I've never had a problem where accuracy to .001v was necessary to figure out the problem.