Auto Gear Box Issues

[e1w00db1ue5]

Now bear with me here, all will become electrically clear...

Ok, so last Wednesday on my way to take the car to have it's MOT I disocovered it had developed a dislike for changing gears...

So, spent an hour or so reading the forum and came to the conclusion that at the very least i should change the very black ATF fluid..

So on thursday my mechanic friend popped round while i was in London leaving my wallet on a train to have a look at the car himself, being a good boy he check it over fully to ensure nothing was hanging off or about to go bang!

For him the car behaved perfectly, changed gear and everything - this was annoying as he now thinks I'm a little crazy, however whichever way you slice it a maximum speed of 30mph does not show a healthy car!

So yesterday I decided as a first case to get the ATF fluid changed, however kids, visitors, sleep, vomit and a local planning issue all kept me from doing it. However a nice crippled Surf owner popped round to show me where the dipstick was (avoid the obvious joke here...) he also magiclly appeared with 5lt of DXIII ATF and a funnel too

So today i set about changing the ATF, once i had it started (flat battery - i think she hates me now..) I dragged the same mechanic out to warm the ATF and this time it refused to change gears again (His comment, i think summuts broke...). So we stop he pokes under the bonnet and (logically) looks around the area we had done some work on on Tuesday, this had basically involved grinding a hole for the snorkle.

There are two connectors by the airbox, one is black and has no affect, the other is grey and when disconnected stops the car (not good when u just jump started it..) It also resolves the issue with the car not changing gears when it is wiggled...

So i'm guessing that we have a dry/loose connector or possible some damage from sparks / the grinder (it has a coupld of marks from the grinder on it).

So my questions are to anyone who is still reading this, and the reason it's in the electrical and not mechanical section is...

What is this connector connecting and WTF does it have to do with the AT Box?

I've attached two very bad pictures

[BUSHWHACKER]

Looks like a speed or crank position sensor to me, as it has three wires Power/Signal/Earth.
The ECU may have gone into limp mode due to the poor condition of the fluid (there's sensors for that too) and the erratic signal it's getting from this sensor.
Disconnect the batteries for 20 mins or pull the ECD relay to re-set the ECU and see if that cures it.

[Albannach]

Can you attach some more very bad pictures to show us where these connectors are?

[e1w00db1ue5]

Thanks guys, I've attached one for you I took when we had the airbox out..

As you can see it's normally directly below the air box inlet on the near side very close to the diagnostics plug (removed in this pic).

This is something very important to the car, if you disconnect when it's running it will stop the car immediately..

Elwood.

[BUSHWHACKER]

Thats why I suggested it could be the crank position sensor. If it's unplugged or broken, the engine won't be getting any signals (via the ECU) to run/start.