Driving home on the interstate today in the 2002 3.0 X-type, got it up to around 65mph and then it felt like it slammed into 3rd gear. All the lights on the dash lit up, all gauges went away and it said "gearbox fault".
I drove it home that way, (about 20 miles)
When I came through town on my way home, it ran ok except when I would take off from a light or stop sign, the trans would slip pretty bad until I got up to speed, (around 40mph) It would not up-shift or down-shift at all.
Got it home and hooked my scanner to it, code P1642 was the only code.
I cleard the code and had to re-start the engine about 3 times before the dash lights were all out. Still got the cruise not available light til I re-started it a fourth time. went for a short drive through town to happy hour and it ran great. On the way home from happy hour I got on it slightly from a light to see if it would up-shift alright, it did but all the dash lights came back on again and gearbox fault came back up.
Hooked scanner again and the same P1642 was there. Cleared it again and re-started it again 2 times and it looks normal again.
What could be going on with it?

 

Hope this helps this is what the manual says
CAN bus fault
Looks like it may be a lose connection

 

That's Greek to me...

 

Jim, based on the code, you have a problem with the CAN bus. Because you are experiencing issues with the tranny (seems like it is stuck in 3rd gear as a fail safe to allow you to drive home/to a safe place), you are most likely looking at a connector issue with the tranny computer. By chance, was it raining or did you run through a large puddle about the same time the dash went nuts? If so, odds are, you are getting some water into the connector for the tranny computer and that is what is causing things to go haywire on you.

The loss of cruise control and the car being really slow is normal for this sort of problem as the car goes into a severe "limp mode" (ie, locks the tranny in 3rd gear, limits throttle opening to 30% max).

Access the tranny computer and pull the plug to see what you have. Make sure all the pins are dry and have a silvery/shiny appearance. If they are not silvery, let me know and we can fix that too.

 

Actually it had not rained for 4 days. It was dry out when it happened. Drove it a total of 35 miles today and the same thing happened 4 times in that 35 miles.
I stop the car and shut it of and back on about 3 times and it goes away for about 5 miles or so. The last time it happened today I just got the "gearbox fault" on the speedo and one yellow light, shut it off, ran into a store for 3 minutes and came out and started the car and it was fine.

Monday I need to drive it 85 miles round trip to work and back on the interstate.
Where is the tranny computer located at? When I get home from work I can pull it on the ramps and look at the plug for it.

 

Jim, not to ask the silly question, but based on what you are seeing, are you sure that 1) your battery is good, and/or 2) your battery cables/wiring to the alternator is good? I ask this as you seem to have random problems popping up that a simple restart of the car fixes.

As for the tranny computer, since you have a US version car, the computer will be down in the footwell area (behind the handle for the hood) or possibly up a little higher in the side of the dash near the door hinge.

 

Chris, I drove the 85 miles to work and back today and the car ran fine. No issues at all.
As for the battery and or cables, I haven't had a problem with them. The battery looks to be pretty new and a couple months ago when I looked, the cables on the battery were good and tight and clean. I will have to look at the alternator on Wednesday when I'm off work for an MRI.