P287A: Clutch B Stuck Engaged
Do not keep driving
Stop driving it and have it recovered if drive will not disconnect. A clutch that will not release can keep the car creeping against the brakes, stall the engine at stops, or lock two gears against each other mid-shift. If the module has already cut drive, that is protection doing its job — do not keep cycling the ignition to win one more journey out of it.
What this code means
Clutch B is not releasing — stuck engaged.
Stuck engaged is the dangerous direction, and the module knows it. A clutch that will not release keeps its gear connected — during a shift that means two gears briefly fighting through two clutches, and at a stop it means the car creeps or stalls against the brakes. Expect the module to respond hard: neutral, a refusal to hand torque to the other clutch, or a shutdown of drive rather than a fight it cannot referee.
Mechanically this is drag or jam. Warped plates from an overheat drag even when pressure is released; varnish and debris in the fluid gum the release; a failed actuator can hold pressure on. The overheat history matters — a clutch that survived a temperature code and now will not release cleanly is telling one continuous story.
Likely causes
Start here
- Faulty clutch actuator · specialist
Less common
- Oil contamination on the clutch · specialist
- Debris in the transmission fluid · specialist
- Worn clutch packs · specialist
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 P287A.