Flashing S3

Another “my car won’t start” deal. It doesn’t happen all of the time but, sometimes when I go to work I’ll stop at AMPM for my morning red bull. 20 minute drive from my house. When I get back in the car all it will do is turn over and over and over. Usually I am able to reset the ECU. But this morning was a bit different. It took 10 minutes of reseting the ECU to get her to start. Now the new problem came into play. After getting her to start, off to work I went. S3 flashing on my cluster. And it seemed to only be in 3rd gear. It’s an auto RO tranny. I would punch it to see if it would down shift, nope. Tranny has about 5k miles on it. 40k when I bought it. I am gonna check for codes later, but thought I might get a quicker response here. Thanks in advance

http://g2ic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=108723&highlight=flash

ok…so that didn’t help… gimme a bit.

http://g2ic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=103645&highlight=light+flashing

hopefully that one works.

Yeah that thread helped. Thanks.

Just went to check my car for codes and nothing. and there was no more flashing S3. Go figure. :wtf:

Yesterday i had an encounter with the s3 light. The car was acting like the tranny was slipping, so i shut it down and tried to start it. It wouldn’t start, but I also noticed that I didn’t hear a click from the main fuel relay. I sat for like 15mins and the car started right up and no more s3 light. Would the s3 light affect the fuel relay?

anyone?

It may just be a ‘side-effect’, but I was seeing strange blinking S3 behavior at the same time I was experiencing the infamous MFR no-start problem. Once I changed out the MFR, I did not observe the S3 behavior again and the car started up everytime. The car was also exhibiting weird shifting behavior at the same time. I know it doesn’t make sense, I’m just relating my own ‘personal’ experience. I was really afraid I was looking at transmission problems. Let us know what happens when you change your MFR.

I had the same problem a few months back but it was actually after I changed my MFR. My S3 light was flashing and I was stuck in 3rd gear, so I checked to see if I was getting any codes…I think I was reading 1,3,7 at the time cant remember exactly. Anways I just reset the ECU and I haven’t had a problem since and I checked again for codes and it was fine. :shrug:

Thanks. I’ve tried soldering the MFR, but I guess that didn’t help. I’ll swap out the MFR and see if that solves it.

similar issue

I’m having a similar issue:
off and on for about the last 6 months, the car will occasionally not start. Usually when its either warm outside or after I’ve only driven a short while and then stopped the car. I assumed it was something relating to compensation for engine temp (adjusting fuel ratio or the like). Usually I let it sit for a minute and h ave no problems.
Yesterday night I got to my car (it was sitting all day and not hot out).
I had trouble starting it, then got a blinking S3.
Trans code check TCM shows 1,2,3,7,8
AND - when i put it in drive it was like it was stuck in 3rd or 4th gear. I was able to get it to second by putting it manually there on the selector, but when I went back to S3/S4 or D - it went back into 3rd or 4th and stayed there.
Anybody know a good reason? I’ll maybe flush my trans when I get a chance and change the fluid…??
-Mike
paluck@hotmail.com