Reverse Issue

[dstocks]

One of my coworkers that owns an FTO has just started having a problem with his auto transmission that im hoping someone might be able to shed some light on. Basically, sometimes when the car has been replaced in reverse, nothing happens (sometimes). You can rev the engine and its as though the car is in neutral. The gears seem to be a bit clunky when switching between drive and reverse. Fluid levels are fine and quality of oil is fine and there are no error codes in the system.

Any ideas???

[aza013]

Flush and new oil.

[Gholdwayne]

Flush and new oil.

I like that firmness and certainty.

[aza013]

well that would be the first thing I try any way.

[dstocks]

OK, Dave has just driven home and below is what has happened. Not that his car overheated yesterday due to a blown radiator pipe. Engine appears to be running fine now, but this problem didnt exists before the overheating. Im not sure if that could have damaged or dislodged something. Hopefully someone out there can comment. Dave comments:

OK, got the beast home somehow while avoiding stops as much as possible. It was an interesting experience to say the least.

First, I haven't tried reverse since the mechanic showed it to me. It would be in reverse (beeps and all) but you could rev it like you were in neutral. From what I saw, switching it into drive, then back into reverse didn't do anything... It only fixed itself once it was put in drive and actually moved forward. After that, reverse worked again.

On the drive home it took off ok. I was being very gentle with it. At the first set of lights I had to stop at you could feel the transmission doing something. If I was to hazzard a guess it was moving inbetween gears, but that's probably wildly off the mark. It was very easy to feel however (I think the term is heavy) where it moved the car slightly... Like you were repositioning yourself in the seat.

At was about here I switched to the tiptronic manual mode

On take it, for lack of a better term, kangaroo hopped. It was like it was constantly switching gears at the time, but honestly it was hard to tell if the transmission actually was or not.

I had to stop again for a larger amount of time which results in a much larger kangaroo hop extravaganza... Roughly 300m worth... and to the point where I thought I'd have to pull over and tow it. It sorted itself out before I had the chance. During this time the engine light blinked on. Stocks thinks it may of been the alternator under pressure.

From there I avoided the lights and took a more scenic route home, leaving it in 3rd as much as possible.

What I noticed was once up to speed, it very rarely gave me trouble. Occasionally it would be like the engine had cut out briefly and the accelerator did nothing.

On corners I could take in 3rd (wide corners and round abouts) I would enter with minimal to no power until halfway through and then apply minimal power to maintain whatever speed I was at out and would slowly accelerate afterwards. Several times the engine would briefly act like I didn't have my foot on the accelerator and cut all power and then come back, go away, come back... Similar to the kangaroo hop but because I was already moving and in 3rd, the speed didn't change much and no jerkiness occured. It definately wasn't gear hopping during those.

From my discussions with stocks, it doesn't appear to be limp mode because that should just stick me in 3rd, which I was for the most part and these problems happened in 3rd as well... so something else is happen.

Oh and Mitsubishi checked for error codes before he left the workshop and there werent any

[payaya]

Blown water pipe?? I would go over all electrical connectors to the transmission with a contact cleaner and see what happens.

When was the oil changed Dwayne? Is it red? I once lost all drive and only had reverse.

Is its hopping and your loosing intermittent drive, it's more than likely the torque converter. No error codes also point to this.

Also ask him is the problem worse the more he drives and less when he starts it in the morning.

Is there water in the oil? Radiator oil cooler? Water in lines and check for air bubbles on the dip stick after driving.

[dstocks]

From what he tells me, engine is running fine, and not overheating or losing water. Just the problem with the tranny.

[payaya]

From what he tells me, engine is running fine, and not overheating or losing water. Just the problem with the tranny.

Ok you can rule out water contamination from the cooler lines in the oil. If the radiator line come lose it probably sprayed all over the electrical connectors. Cheap to clean and nothing to lose. If not back to the torque converter being a bitch.

Also tell him to smell the oil, if it smells burnt then that's bad.

[Shhtuart]

Dodgy driveshaft??

[Supplanter]

I had something similar happen to mine a few years ago. The gear stick button wasn't pushing down properly, and the stick would move slightly out of the "D" position.

[dstocks]

Actually that one sounds a bit like what it could be. He said going around corners exacerbates the problem. I wonder if it is just adjustment in the selector + possible burnt oil from the overheat.