I have a 2005 with a 6-speed. On occassion, when shifting from 4th to 5th, the shifter will allow me to go all the way over and align with reverse. Ninety-nine percent of the time the solenoid will lock me out and prevent me from going over that far and aligns me with 5th and 6th. I took it to the dealer and complained about it. The dealer has driven it on two separate occassions and claims it allowed him to go all the way to align with reverse as well, and that it is normal. The dealer contends he has another car of that same year that does the same thing, and that he'll research and get back to me. The dealer states that it will let you align with reverse, but will not allow you to shift into reverse when moving. I went for a ride with the dealer and the lockout functioned as I believe it should, aligned me with 5th and 6th and would not let me move over to reverse. The dealer said he'd research and get back to me. The owners manual, service manual, and GM Dealer service website only tell you that the reverse lockout prevents you from going into reverse, but do not say at what point it locks you out. No damage has been done to the car, but when it happens it is very annoying since you have to search to find 5th. Does anybody know how the shift is suppossed to function and/or have experience with this type of problem? If so, does anyone have anything official from GM that I could provide the dealer service dept.? Thanks!

Tom

 

IMO you have to go over pretty far just to be able to shift into reverse from 4th. just drinve it for a little while. I too was scared of the same thing when i first got the car but about two weeks later I had no problems. just thing how the shifter jumps over by itself from 2nd to third and replicate that from 4th to fifth.

 

I believe the reverse lockout activates approx. 5+ mph. So if you're just at a stop, or drifting ever so slowly, yes it's possible to position the manual shift lever from any gear into reverse.

Anything above that (I say approx because I don't have the docs in hand) speed you should >never< be able to shift into reverse. I'm a little unclear form your post at what speeds your able to shift into reverse....and at what speed the dealer was saying you can.

In my man6, I have never had an incident of shifting into reverse while moving at higher speeds.

Help us out here, at what speeds are you talking about?

 

I have the same problem with my 05. It never engages the reverse gears, that's what reverse lock out keeps from happening. The problem is there is no spring load to stop the shifter from going into the reverse gate. I've had the car sence 05 and it wasn't always like this. The dealer installed a new reverse lock out mech, that did nothing. They always say it's normal. If you find a fix please let me know. Anyone else could you do a push test to see what it takes to move the shifter all the way to the reverse gate

 

I have an 05 as well and have never experienced this issue at all.
The shifter box may need re-aligned or adjusted to it's neutral position to make all other gears flawless.
If all fails, replace shifter with an aftermarket, MGW is good , but was not my cup of tea, so I recently went to the 09 Z06 shifter with box/ boot / and **** . It is pretty nice but pricey.

 

however I did go with the MGW and love it.

 

I have a MY06 and had the same problem as you describe.

The reverse lockout should block by the time you reach the aligning to fifth and sixth.

I can't really tell you the reason it did that, it wasn't a permanent, more sporadically...
but since I've changed the transmission fluid, it's definitely gone and blocks when it has to

 

 

I had the same experience. Your reverse lockout is failing. Mine was intermittent - then finally it just stopped working. The dealer insisted that it was normal to be able to move the shifter into the reverse gate and assured me that I would not be able to engage reverse by mistake. Then they spent time 'adjusting my shifter'.

I found that - once the reverse solenoid was sticking all the time (IE- always allowing me to move into the reverse gate while moving forward), I could get the lockout to engage by accelerating briskly from a stop. This action seemed to have the effect of un-sticking the reverse lockout solenoid and establishing the proper reverse lockout. Of course - if I accelerated softly after the next stop - the reverse lockout would be back in the failure mode and I would be able to move the shifter into the reverse gate while moving forward.

I demonstrated this to the service rep and he finally STFU and fixed the car.
They have to drop the rear suspension to replace the reverse lockout solenoid - which is on top of the transmission.

I thought about this later, and frankly - the service rep could not have been so ignorant. After the fact I came to believe that GM tries to avoid fixing this one by just blowing the bulls**t like - "hey that's the way its supposed to work" and "I just test drove a new z/O6 and it works the same way". Your note has solidified my opinion.

so - to summarize -

• The reverse lockout solenoid is bad. When it is stuck you can move the shifter into the reverse gate while moving forward.
• The shifter really prefers to go into the reverse gate when the solenoid is stuck and you are shifting from 4 - 5.
• You may be able to un-stick the solenoid with aggressive acceleration and re-establish the barrier to the reverse gate.
• The dealer will give you a 'spert (so-called-expert) to ride/drive your car and tell you that the reverse lockout prevents you from engaging reverse while moving forward but not from allowing the shifter to enter the reverse gate.
• The dealer 'spert will be full of s**t
• If your warranty is still in effect, GM will replace the reverse lockout solenoid under warranty.

-jer

 

Thanks to all for the responses and suggestions. The Op Manual claims the reverse lockout kicks in at 3MPH/5KMH. The speeds I am talking about where it is letting me slide over to align with reverse are in excess of 40 MPH. When it happens, there is little resistance. You can't tell the difference whether you are going over to 5th and 6th, or reverse, and you have to return the shifter to the left and hunt to find 5th. The solenoid fails to function completely. As I told the dealer, either it is designed to prevent you from going over to reverse at speeds above 3MPH (which it normally does), or it is designed to always allow you to align with reverse when going from 5th. One or the other is correct; it can't be both, and my money is on the former. I think jmagilto is correct - the solenoid is going.

 

The dealer installed a new Rev Lockout mech in my car( I watched them do it) and I can still move the shifter into the reverse gate but not far enough up to engage the rev gears. I have had others try this and they also can move the shifter into the rev gate just not into gear. Unless the part they installed was bad from stock and the other car I tryed also has a problem?

 

Hi,
When moving forward the shifter should not move beyond the 5/6 gate. The Reverse Gate should be completely locked out (as if reverse were not even there). If you are able to move your shifter further to the right than the 5/6 gate - and get to the reverse gate where you can then move forward toward the reverse gear - your car's reverse lockout is presenting the failure mode described previously.

There is a secondary mechanism that prevents you from actually engaging reverse when moving forward and in the reverse gate - but this is a secondary mechanism and not representative of the primary operating mode or design.

If you have two cars that behave this way - both are in failure mode. If you watched someone replace your reverse lockout solenoid and the car still does it I think it would be reasonable to consider that either they replaced the wrong part or they replaced the right part with a different part that has the same failure.

Since the dealer replaced my reverse lockout solenoid I have not had a single recurrance of the behaviour that grants access to the reverse gate while moving forward...

I hope this helps...