P0711: the gearbox fluid temperature reading doesn't add up
The gearbox fluid temperature sensor tells the gearbox computer how hot the fluid inside it is, which affects exactly how firmly and how quickly it shifts gear. This code means the sensor's reading doesn't make sense against the gearbox's other signals, even though the signal itself looks electrically fine. It's a plausibility fault: the reading isn't impossible, just not one the computer believes.
You might notice
- The gearbox may shift harshly or unusually while the computer can't trust this reading
- The engine warning light comes on
- gearbox fluid temperature sensor
- — a sensor that tells the gearbox computer how hot the fluid inside it is
- gearbox computer
- — the separate computer, distinct from the engine control unit, that runs an automatic gearbox
What the code itself says
P0711 is a powertrain (engine, gearbox and drive system) code, and the 0 after the letter means it is a generic code with a standard meaning.
Grouped here as: Gearbox control — Gear selection, shift quality, fluid condition and the sensors and solenoids the gearbox's own control module reads. That grouping is ours, to help explain the code. The code's official family is the letter at the start.
This page is generic. Your car isn't.
A code on its own only tells you what the sensor saw, not what's actually wrong — and that changes next to your other codes. Read this one together with the rest of your scan and we'll work out what's really going on.
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