Transmission Reverse Issue

[RoGuE]

This morning I put my car in to reverse to back out of my driveway and discovered that it didn't engage the reverse gear and was just rolling in neutral. I shifted out of reverse and back and it worked just fine. It wasn't cold, about 70 degrees out. This is the first problem I've had with this transmission other than some rough shifts now and then. It still has the factory fluid and was going to be doing a pan drop and filter in the next few weeks. It has just about 50k miles on it.

Is this a sign of trouble to come or should I not worry about it unless it continues?

 

[Driz]

Probably it is the shift linkage being worn or out of adjustment a bit. If it's a cable like most are today it could have stretched some and needs tightening slightly. YouTube is often helpful with the specifics on your particular car. That's what I'd look at first. Sometimes it's easy to see if it's stretched because when you look at the indicator occasionally it's not exactly in the middle of the selected gear. Also sometimes the bracket that holds the cable I believe it's called TV cable is rotting away or bent which allows it to move around so much that you don't get full motion, check that too

 

[Lubener]

Are you sure it wasn't in neutral by accident? Would it go forward at that time? Start with fluid level check. Any time you can't move doesn't mean good things will happen.

 

[RoGuE]

Originally Posted By: Driz
Probably it is the shift linkage being worn or out of adjustment a bit. If it's a cable like most are today it could have stretched some and needs tightening slightly. YouTube is often helpful with the specifics on your particular car. That's what I'd look at first. Sometimes it's easy to see if it's stretched because when you look at the indicator occasionally it's not exactly in the middle of the selected gear. Also sometimes the bracket that holds the cable I believe it's called TV cable is rotting away or bent which allows it to move around so much that you don't get full motion, check that too


It actually was inspected and reinforced a couple years ago under a recall due to reports of fracture and breaking.

Originally Posted By: Lubener
Are you sure it wasn't in neutral by accident? Would it go forward at that time? Start with fluid level check. Any time you can't move doesn't mean good things will happen.


It was definitely in reverse. It doesn't leak any fluid so I would guess the fluid level is okay. Unfortunately the only way to check the level is to pull a check plug behind the passenger tire.

 

[i_hate_autofraud]

Check the transmission fluid hot after DRIVING 5+ miles and see what the level is. If near or below the "add" mark,that can cause shift problems. Never check level when idling engine from cold to warm, it'll give a false level.

Look up the GM model number for the transmission in your car, then google "XXXX problems" and see what pops up.

GM transmissions are consistently bad, in my case "4T65E problems" gets lots of results.

Also use the GM number to look at parts made to correct transmission issues on Sonnex.com and see what they have, the fewer the parts the better for you.