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No reverse gear? Autobox, need help


The-Plethora

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I should start by exaplaining a few things which may help. I recently had to use the car to travel for work in Liverpool and all seemed fine till I came off the motorway and arrived and speed was lower, the car sounded quite raspy. Anyway I eventually got to my hotel and left the car there, tried it in the morning and after 5 mins or so of warming up it was doing it again. I took no risks and called the AA who said they couldnt hear anything unusual which was quite frustrating. Anyway as he was preparing to go I put the car in neutral and gave the car some revs and I could hear the raspy noise. I originally thought maybe it was the diff as I asked the garage to change the oil 2 weeks previous but as it wasn't moving in neutral I thought maybe a bearing from the water or oil pump.

 

Not wanting to risk damage I got the car recovered on a flat bed and got home. I started it up the next day and checked oil and coolant etc and all seemed fine, tried it a couple of days later for longer, around 20 mins or so and the noise was back.

 

Get in the car last night and it fires up fine and I can move forward just fine but when i put it in reverse I get the reversing beep and the R light on the dash but it just revs as if it is in neutral. Do you think the extreme cold and ice could have frozen something internally in the gearbox or anyone got any other ideas? I will try and have a closer look and do a vid to explain later if its not too dark.

 

What does a stock autobox go for these days if I need to swap it out?

 

Thanks for any help

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I am absolutlely sure that you and the AA man have checked this,...but that does sound like really low transmission fluid to me. The rasping sound I think comes fromt he TC when the fluid is low. The way to check the fluid is not like the engine oil. The car has to be in drive and engine running and you need to push the selector through all the gears before you dip it.

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Do you seen oil leak? is the oil brown? if is brown is not good at all, my auto box had the same fault with all the gears when i was out of transmission oil, I changed the gaskets, transmission oil filter, i had the gearbox washed and changed the bearing inside, and new fresh red oil transmision! now everithing works great! I can feel it smoother and faster shifting :D, It cost me 550 Euros...

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Video below which helps. I checked the ATF around a month ago and it seemed ok but popped back from work at lunch and it gulped the 1.5 litres of spare ATF I had spare which has got me worried and maybe we have the culprit.

I moved up and down through the gears as mentioned (and in the video below) but still nothing, I will let the fluid soak down through and try it again later. As you can see in the vid I can creep slowly forward without a problem so drive seems ok but reverse just sits there. I used reverse only the day before and didnt notice any problems at all, I actually had to do a bit of forward and back to get out of the snow and it seemed fine.

 

Is it worth me pushing the car back and taking it out for a drive as it seems D is ok to circulate the fluid and see what happens? I am worried the box is toast but worried it may have taken something else with it. I don't claim to be an expert on autoboxes but from what I hear it's basically a series of clutches, is it possible that the reverse gear / cog has just become stuck and wont engage?

 

Whats the cheapest I could get a replacement box for? I don't have much money at the moment after Christmas, thanks for any help guys I appreciate it.

 

Dave

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKcUvlFgC5Y

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Yeah I checked with the engine running for a few mins. Is the filter something a novice could change or would it be best to take to a garage? I am weighing it up as I can see that autoboxes seem to go from anything from free to £200 or so. Is it worth trying to fix this or just replace the lot.

 

I am not against having a go myself (not got a lot to lose) but I dont have a garage and as you can see theres a lot of snow about still ;)

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Doing the filter is best done on a ramp in my opinion, its easy enough with the car

up in the air but not a job i'd want to do on the floor but then i'm old and don't

do that anymore.

 

I'd guess around an hours work or so to drop the sump, clean the sealer off etc,

fitting the actual filter is dead easy once the sumps off

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Be really careful you dont get any of the old sealer up in the box or left on the sump as that

will definitely bugger the box up.

 

I found brake cleaner was really good at helping to remove the old sealer.

 

When you re fit the sump don't use too much sealer or it could squash out inside

the box when you torque up the sump bolts.

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The local garage is fairly close by so I could get it there without too much hassle (or reversing). Is there still a chance I could have damaged the internals though? It seems odd that the forward gears work fine. Sorry for all the questions, money is really tight at the moment so the cheaper the better. Would any of you have the part number for the filter?

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Sorry i don't know enough about autobox's to give you a best route to go but yes you could

replace the filter and all the fuid and it still be the same.

 

Speak to an autobox specialist first before you do anything http://www.autolock-crewe.co.uk, CW

gave me this places details so give them a bell is my best advice

 

Give Steve Manley a call for the filter, there only small so could go in the post.

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The local garage is fairly close by so I could get it there without too much hassle (or reversing). Is there still a chance I could have damaged the internals though? It seems odd that the forward gears work fine. Sorry for all the questions, money is really tight at the moment so the cheaper the better. Would any of you have the part number for the filter?

 

How you getting on with this?

Did the 1.5 litres get it to the correct level? If it is anything less than full then you still may experience problems, and a few litres of ATF is your cheapest option, if only to eliminate a low fluid problem.

Just a thought, how does your coolant look? I know there has been instances of the cooler pipe in the bottom of the radiator giving up and pumping ATF into the coolant system, again, easily and cheaply eliminated from the equation by simply linking both transmission cooler pipes together with a hose and couple of jubilee clips, assuming that you are running stock rad and atf cooler that is.

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Thanks for the continued help guys, it's really helpful. Don't talk too soon swampy I still have forward gears ;). I added all the ATF I had which was 1.5 litres with still no change. I am stuck in work today but asked my folks to pick me up a further 2 litres of the same brand ATF I just put in to see if that helps. I am a little stuck due to continued bad weather so my current plan was to top it up completely then wait till saturday and drive it for some time with forward gears, get some heat into it and see if reverse will then engage.

 

Where abouts is the autobox cooler located in relation to the radiator? by one of the front air ducts? I'll check the condition when its thawed out a little, been fine for over 3 years though but going from fine to no reverse gear to being able to put 1.5 litres in is concerning, maybe it is damaged.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

and thanks DNK I will do some reading on that document.

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Thanks for the continued help guys, it's really helpful. Don't talk too soon swampy I still have forward gears ;). I added all the ATF I had which was 1.5 litres with still no change. I am stuck in work today but asked my folks to pick me up a further 2 litres of the same brand ATF I just put in to see if that helps. I am a little stuck due to continued bad weather so my current plan was to top it up completely then wait till saturday and drive it for some time with forward gears, get some heat into it and see if reverse will then engage.

 

Where abouts is the autobox cooler located in relation to the radiator? by one of the front air ducts? I'll check the condition when its thawed out a little, been fine for over 3 years though but going from fine to no reverse gear to being able to put 1.5 litres in is concerning, maybe it is damaged.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

and thanks DNK I will do some reading on that document.

 

You need to make sure that the level is correct as too much fluid as well as too little will cause you issues. I can't remember on the supra if there is a hot and cold side of the dipstick, I think it is, so make sure when you are checking the level that you are looking at the correct side of the stick.

 

Re the cooler, yes as Swampy says its in the bottom tank of the rad, in fact its a tube that passes through the bottom tank, that's if yours is still stock of course. I remember reading somewhere that someone had one fail inside the rad and the ATF ended up being pumped into the coolant system which will cause not only the obvious coolant problem but also if the leak in the cooler is severe enough will mean that you will be losing ATF pressure which means you autobox will do strange things. I recenly left my ATF cooler pipes bunged with a socket extension bar when I was doing some work at the front of my car and was amazed at the pressure the fluid when I forgot and tried to move the car a few inches, the pressure build up behind the extension bar fired it like a cannon and spewed masses of ATF everywhere.

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Presume these hoses shown?

 

image

 

I couldn't see any leaking and topped the ATF up until it was showing full on the hot mark (when the car was warmed up). Still no reverse so pushed the car backwards off the drive and drove over to my work car park (literally over the road), let it idle and drove forwards slowly in a circle in the car park without issue. I turned up a hill as I came out of work, I could have driven home in neutral if necessary and it seemed to be very low on revs so I had to put my foot down more than normal, at the top of the short hill the engine cut completely.

I started her back up (all fine) drove the few meters back up the hill and coasted home in neutral onto the drive, back for round 2 at the weekend it seems. Getting a quote off a local garage at lunch to diagnose and quote for a swap.

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Presume these hoses shown?

 

http://i789.photobucket.com/albums/yy176/The-Plethora/2013-01-22135934.jpg

 

I couldn't see any leaking and topped the ATF up until it was showing full on the hot mark (when the car was warmed up). Still no reverse so pushed the car backwards off the drive and drove over to my work car park (literally over the road), let it idle and drove forwards slowly in a circle in the car park without issue. I turned up a hill as I came out of work, I could have driven home in neutral if necessary and it seemed to be very low on revs so I had to put my foot down more than normal, at the top of the short hill the engine cut completely.

I started her back up (all fine) drove the few meters back up the hill and coasted home in neutral onto the drive, back for round 2 at the weekend it seems. Getting a quote off a local garage at lunch to diagnose and quote for a swap.

 

Yes thats them, for test purposes you could connect them together with a piece of tube. But it doesnt sound good. Guess the flush and filter change may be worth a try next, why did the engine cut out? Wouldnt think thats gearbox related tbh.

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I just managed to coax it to the local garage after getting it warmed up and checking ATF and seemed ok on the way there. On the way back it was going along ok then I got the sort of feeling when you brake using the gears to slow down if that makes sense (engine braking?) lasted only a few seconds then seemed ok.

Got to the garage ok but had to get pushed onto the road as there's still nothing out of the reverse although still beeping and going into the selector ok.

 

The earliest they can have a look is likely next Thursday afternoon. With the odd behavior with the 'engine braking though' it's got me a little puzzled, maybe this is something electrical? Does the autobox itself has a separate ECU or anything or is it all integrated into the big box in the passenger foot well?

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i had a similar problem in my 93 jdm tt in last summer, in reverse it was only beeping but not moving at all. I checked transmission fault codes and there was fault codes 62&63 (faulty transmission shift solenoid circuit). Changed the engine ecu and it has been working perfectly after that :) .

 

DIAGNOSTIC TROUBLE CODE CHECK

1. Turn the ignition switch ON, but do not start the engine.

2. Push in the O/D main switch to ON.

HINT: Warning and diagnostic trouble codes can be read only

when the O/D main switch is ON. If it is OFF, the O/D OFF indicator

light up will light continuously and will not blink.

3.Connect terminals TE1 and E1 of the DLC 1 or

DLC2.

 

4. Read the diagnostic trouble code indicated by the number of

times the O/D OFF indicator light blinks.

If the system is operating normally, the light will blink

2 times per second.

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