cjcvette

I have recently experienced two episodes of reverse lockout solenoid failure. I was shifting into 5th (doing ~50mph) and the shifter went into reverse. It wouldn't let me finish the shift but did grind a bit. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone could help with a couple questions:

1. How hard is it to replace the solenoid?

2. I find it strange that I don't get the DTC code (P0801 Reverse Inhibit Solenoid Control Circuit). The only code I have is P0804, which I expect as I have the skip shift eliminator.

The vette is a '99, 6 speed, Z51

Bill Dearborn

I had this happen on my 97 and was able to demonstrate it to the dealer tech. They ordered a new part under warranty and when they compared it to the old part there was no difference. The reverse lockout solenoid is not supposed to completely lock out reverse. This is because a lockout solenoid failure could leave a driver in the bad fix of not being able to get the car into reverse. So the solenoid basically locks out reverse but the lockout is held in place by a heavy duty spring which can be overridden. The old one on my 97 and the new part took the same amount of force to override the lockout so the real problem was how hard I was forcing the transmission into reverse. If you have an aftermarket shifter that requires a lot of force to get the lever into the 1-2 gate and the 5-6 gate you can get into reverse a lot easier when shifting to 5th because the tendency is to use more force than necessary to get past the stiff shifter springs and thus overpower the lockout spring.
Bill

Jim2003

I had mine replaced under warrenty in my 03 mn6. Every now and then I got a touch of reverse going into 5th. So I quit using 5th until I got it fixed. The little bugger is on top on the tranny (if I remember what the tech told me). He had a big enough socket that just fit in the area and he was able to back out the old one and in with the new. Since then I have had zero problems.

MadMaxZ06

Yep, I also had a "lazy" reverse lockout solenoid.

1. With the car lifted (either jack stands or of course a lift) the solenoid is easy to see and get to from the rear. While I didn't actually replace it myself (covered under warranty) I saw it and can't think of any reason why it isn't quite easy to replace.

2. FWIW I never received any codes either. My only guess is that the the solenoid is merely lazy (mine only intermitently failed to lockout reverse when it was cold, e.g. operated within first 10 minutes or so of startup) and not actually 100% failed and therefore doesn't throw any codes.

Once mine was replaced, 100% fixed.

- Max

cjcvette

Thanks for the feedback. The shifter is stock and it slid easily into the reverse position. Since the solenoid is working today and I tried to force it past but it held firm. Looks to be intermittent.

Dan_the_C5_Man

I'll add you should not have any codes related to the ship-shift circuit; the skip-shift eliminator is simply a single resistor. If the resistor is in the circuit (as it should be unless you have the connector hanging free) you will not have any codes.

P0803 is for the actual skip-shift circuit, P0804 indicates someone pulled the light on the IPC?