P0815: Upshift Switch Circuit
What to do
Automatic shifting is unaffected — only manual mode has stopped responding to upshift requests. Nothing about this threatens the transmission and it can wait for a convenient appointment.
What this code means
A circuit fault in the switch requesting a manual upshift — a steering wheel paddle, or the plus position on a manual gate. The transmission is unaffected: it continues to select gears automatically exactly as before, and only the ability to ask for one by hand is lost.
Paddles and gate switches live where hands and knees reach them and take more mechanical wear than most switches, so the switch itself leads the suspect list comfortably ahead of the wiring.
Likely causes
Start here
- Faulty manual shift switch · easy
- Corroded or loose connector · easy
Less common
- Open circuit in switch wiring · moderate
- Faulty clock spring in steering wheel · moderate
Symptoms
Components involved
Information, not instruction
CarGeek is a reference, not a service manual. Its pages are written from public sources and from what other people have found, never from a manufacturer's own service information, so they can be wrong or incomplete for your particular vehicle. Some of what they describe carries real risk: high voltage, fuel under pressure, stored energy, hot and moving parts.
Have anything you intend to act on checked by a trained person against the manufacturer's own procedure for your vehicle. Nothing here replaces that procedure.
Community experience
Be the first to write this up
Nothing posted about this yet. Whatever you found is worth writing down — even a dead end saves someone the same afternoon.
What makes one worth reading:
- The car — make, model, year and engine. The same fault behaves differently on each.
- What you measured, not only what you replaced.
- What actually fixed it — or that nothing did, which is worth knowing too.
Sign in or create an account to add what you found about P0815.