jammerjamesharmon

Car would not start. I had it towed to Lambs Automotive. Mechanic said he pushed my car into his shop, slight upgrade, and it took a while to diagnose the problem, which he said is a broken shift cable and was stuck in reverse. I thought it would be hard to push if car was in reverse, so that would be a huge clue. Could he have found a cheap problem and just said it was the cable?

Thoughts please................


Thanks

4DRUSH

It probably pushed easy after the tow truck broke the trans getting it to the garage.

BigGun

Being stuck in reverse will keep it from starting. You should always ask to see any replaced parts from any shop you may not fully trust. I doubt you suffered any transmission damage. With the engine not running I don't think the trans would be engaged.

RonSSNova

It won't hurt a thing to push an auto trans car while it's stuck in reverse. But it will be hard, the trans gears are engaged.
The switch that tells the car it's in gear is on the trans end of the cable. It's a neutral safety switch, hence the no start.

The cable isn't trivial to replace.....

Ron

dbgoodwin

Agree. The shift cable shouldn't be that big of a deal to replace. My question: how did you get the key out in the first place? Every automatic I've ever seen break a shift cable did so while trying to put it in park. The key wouldn't come out of the ignition.

reath1

As long as a car has an auto trans it will push in any gear except park as if it were in neutral.

lionelhutz

Gears are actually engaged by the oil under pressure coming from the pump. Without the engine running no fluid gets pumped so no gear can get engaged regardless of the position of the shift lever.

This is also why you can't tow an automatic vehicle very far on it's drive wheels if the engine isn't running. The pump also pumps oil to the various bushings, clutches, sprags etc for lubrication.