What the heck happened??

[AJ02]

Got home from the Dallas auto show and went for a drive yesterday cause it was just too nice out to sit home. Decided I would stop and get some beer and take it over to a buddies house. Stopped at Central Market and when I tried to back out of my parking spot---the car wouldn't go in reverse for love nor money!!! I tried probably five times going between a forward gear and reverse. It just wouldn't go. I finally had to push it out of the spot so I could go home. (Not too embarrasing!!) It shifted perfectly in all forward gears and when I got it home it would go into reverse just fine!!?? Any ideas? Oh yea, it's a 2002 GTS

 

[dave6666]

Reverse lockout solenoid gone wild?

 

[AJ02]

That was my thought. Any way to check it?

 

[DrumrBoy]

Will a whacked out solenoid keep you from putting it in reverse when the car is turned off? Never encountered that one before...have had forks bent just enough to not "reach" all the way up to reverse though.

 

[VYPR BYT 94]

Could be just one of those weird combinations of things... a dip in the asphalt right where the tire nested into it, timing of the gears rotation with the nesting that put unusual pressure on the gears, good old Murphy and his stupid law...

Might be nothing

 

[dave6666]

That was my thought. Any way to check it?

Wait for it to happen again, keeping in mind that it could when you park out and about. And if it does happen again, it is something.

Not many parts to that system (PCM, fuse, solenoid), so should be an easy fix. Unless of course it's the bent shift fork thing and then I'll need your car for a few weeks to troubleshoot

 

[AJ02]

Wait for it to happen again, keeping in mind that it could when you park out and about. And if it does happen again, it is something.

Not many parts to that system (PCM, fuse, solenoid), so should be an easy fix. Unless of course it's the bent shift fork thing and then I'll need your car for a few weeks to troubleshoot

Put about 150 miles on it today, using reverse everytime I parked. No problems. I could give you my car to troubleshoot, as long as I have yours to play in.

 

[Ulysses]

This has happened to me in my 2000 a few times over the years. It's just the way things line up. The best thing to do is not force it, or you will bend or break something. I just put the clutch in and run through the forward gears and then try reverse again. Usually always works.

 

[jdeft1]

I think Dave hit it on this one. Reverse lockout solenoid hang. The solution is to drive the car more....

 

[bluesrt]

sometimes you have to put it in 1st,go forward a smidge,then go into reverse

 

[scottmarston]

sometimes you have to put it in 1st,go forward a smidge,then go into reverse

I've had to do the "go forward a smidge" to get it into reverse. Why is that...is it because reverse isn't tied into the syncro mesh? I don’t know crap about transmissions in general.

 

[VYPR BYT 94]

I've had to do the "go forward a smidge" to get it into reverse. Why is that...is it because reverse isn't tied into the syncro mesh? I don’t know crap about transmissions in general.

Bluesrt is just telling you to basically rock it to get the weight off it as it sits... look at my previous post, that's likely exactly what happened.
Like mentioned earlier, don't worry about it until it happens again. And if it does happen again, take note of how your car is sitting... is a tire down in a dip, etc

 

[eucharistos]

i'm not as technical as those who already posted, buy i'm thinking it has something to do with central market

 

[AJ02]

sometimes you have to put it in 1st,go forward a smidge,then go into reverse

Tried that and all it did was get me farther into the parking spot. I went from 1st to 3rd--tried reverse--back to 1st--tried reverse so on and so on. Must've tried 4 or 5 times. All seems good now, so I guess it was just a fluke.
jdeft1, I've put 4000 miles on it since the middle of Dec. With the price of gas in the DFW area, it'd break me to drive it more

 

[bluesrt]

i will also tell you, untill you get used to the transmission, sometimes this happens and your just not makeing it happen(it has happened to me a few), calm down and go a little slower. i know,you freak out and it doesnt make it better..