Gear Shift/Transmission Problems
Thread Starter
Cruising
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 10
Likes: 0
Gear Shift/Transmission Problems
Halp!
I have a 95 coupe (automatic) that I've owned for just under a year, and yesterday night when I got home from work, I parked, as usual, but when I put the car IN park I heard a small crunch. I thought it was something I rolled over or the gravel driveway, but figured I was just hearing things. This morning, get in the car, and shift into reverse, and I think to myself, man, that felt funky. Drive to work, car runs just as usual. Car shifts while in drive just fine, absolutely no issues.
Get into the parking lot and put the sucker in park and turn it off. Then the car starts to roll after I let off the brake. Sure enough, when I have the car in "park", park isn't actually engaged, and I'm in neutral. A little messing around, and I discover that I can get to Reverse/neutral/drive just fine from park, but once im in drive, I can't get into reverse/neutral until I push it back up to park and then down again.
Is my transmission fubared? Or is it something maybe less sinister?
- I am a 25 year old student in the midst of my undergraduate degree so I unfortunately don't have a lot of money for a new transmission, so I'm crossing my fingers it's not that.
I have a 95 coupe (automatic) that I've owned for just under a year, and yesterday night when I got home from work, I parked, as usual, but when I put the car IN park I heard a small crunch. I thought it was something I rolled over or the gravel driveway, but figured I was just hearing things. This morning, get in the car, and shift into reverse, and I think to myself, man, that felt funky. Drive to work, car runs just as usual. Car shifts while in drive just fine, absolutely no issues.
Get into the parking lot and put the sucker in park and turn it off. Then the car starts to roll after I let off the brake. Sure enough, when I have the car in "park", park isn't actually engaged, and I'm in neutral. A little messing around, and I discover that I can get to Reverse/neutral/drive just fine from park, but once im in drive, I can't get into reverse/neutral until I push it back up to park and then down again.
Is my transmission fubared? Or is it something maybe less sinister?
- I am a 25 year old student in the midst of my undergraduate degree so I unfortunately don't have a lot of money for a new transmission, so I'm crossing my fingers it's not that.
Safety Car
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 3,629
Likes: 28
From: FL
Halp!
I have a 95 coupe (automatic) that I've owned for just under a year, and yesterday night when I got home from work, I parked, as usual, but when I put the car IN park I heard a small crunch. I thought it was something I rolled over or the gravel driveway, but figured I was just hearing things. This morning, get in the car, and shift into reverse, and I think to myself, man, that felt funky. Drive to work, car runs just as usual. Car shifts while in drive just fine, absolutely no issues.
Get into the parking lot and put the sucker in park and turn it off. Then the car starts to roll after I let off the brake. Sure enough, when I have the car in "park", park isn't actually engaged, and I'm in neutral. A little messing around, and I discover that I can get to Reverse/neutral/drive just fine from park, but once im in drive, I can't get into reverse/neutral until I push it back up to park and then down again.
Is my transmission fubared? Or is it something maybe less sinister?
- I am a 25 year old student in the midst of my undergraduate degree so I unfortunately don't have a lot of money for a new transmission, so I'm crossing my fingers it's not that.
I have a 95 coupe (automatic) that I've owned for just under a year, and yesterday night when I got home from work, I parked, as usual, but when I put the car IN park I heard a small crunch. I thought it was something I rolled over or the gravel driveway, but figured I was just hearing things. This morning, get in the car, and shift into reverse, and I think to myself, man, that felt funky. Drive to work, car runs just as usual. Car shifts while in drive just fine, absolutely no issues.
Get into the parking lot and put the sucker in park and turn it off. Then the car starts to roll after I let off the brake. Sure enough, when I have the car in "park", park isn't actually engaged, and I'm in neutral. A little messing around, and I discover that I can get to Reverse/neutral/drive just fine from park, but once im in drive, I can't get into reverse/neutral until I push it back up to park and then down again.
Is my transmission fubared? Or is it something maybe less sinister?
- I am a 25 year old student in the midst of my undergraduate degree so I unfortunately don't have a lot of money for a new transmission, so I'm crossing my fingers it's not that.
By the way, when you are 50 and have money you still won't like paying for a new transmission.
Racer
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 430
Likes: 1
From: Austin Texas
One thing that can often lead to this type of problem is putting the car into park on a GRADE without first engaging the parking brake.
The right method is to instead apply the brakes using the foot brake pedal, then lifting the parking brake into position to apply the parking brake, and THEN to move the transmission selector into "park". This ensures that there is no pressure on the park pin.
If you simply put into park on a grade without doing the above sequence, the parking pin will be under pressure (since IT, not the parking brake, is actually holding the car, so when you later move the selector out of park, you put a lot of strain on both the park pin and the shift cable. With repeated use of this wrong method, sooner or later, one of them will fail.
Jim G
The right method is to instead apply the brakes using the foot brake pedal, then lifting the parking brake into position to apply the parking brake, and THEN to move the transmission selector into "park". This ensures that there is no pressure on the park pin.
If you simply put into park on a grade without doing the above sequence, the parking pin will be under pressure (since IT, not the parking brake, is actually holding the car, so when you later move the selector out of park, you put a lot of strain on both the park pin and the shift cable. With repeated use of this wrong method, sooner or later, one of them will fail.
Jim G
