96 850T, No reverse, in gear in P & N?

futureboycolin · Post by **futureboycolin** » 23 Jul 2014, 11:31

Hey guys, hoping you can all help me figure this one out.

Drove the car home from work last night and it was fine. Did notice that the transmission was shifting a little bumpy and had been planning on doing a drain and fill on the fluid, but never got around to it.

This is weird and frustrating. Was about to go to the gym today, shifted into R and nothing happened. Seemed like the parking brake was engaged, but I didn't use it at all yesterday or last night. The car just wouldn't move, but revved just fine. When I shift into N, the car wants to pull, and also pulls when in P. Is this a broken shifter cable? Hoping against hope that is the case, and that I can replace with minimal headaches. If it's the transmission, I'm afraid it may be time to retire Ol' Burgie, which is a shame as I just rebuilt the top end last summer.

futureboycolin · Post by **futureboycolin** » 23 Jul 2014, 12:20

Just went out to check the transmission codes, but it seems I don't have any diagnostic ports under the hood?

Post by **rspi** » 23 Jul 2014, 18:58

Yes the '96 cars don't have the port. Was the Up Arrow on or flashing? When you say "pulls in park", what does that mean. Does the car drive fine in forward gears?

futureboycolin · Post by **futureboycolin** » 23 Jul 2014, 19:42

Heya Robert,

There is no flashing arrow. Will tranny codes show up in the OBD2 port in the console?

What I mean is that it seems as if it's stuck in drive, in P and in N. The wheels are against a curb, so I don't want to give it too much gas and get stuck on the sidewalk with no way to reverse back off of it. It does seem like it wants to drive up the curb in P and N.

futureboycolin · Post by **futureboycolin** » 23 Jul 2014, 19:44

To clarify:

The shifter is in P or in N, it seems like it's actually in D, and won't reverse when R is selected.

Post by **Volvofan94** » 23 Jul 2014, 20:01

When the gear selector is in R do the back-up lights come on?

I wonder if it could be an issue with your PNP switch not making a good contact...I never personally ran into this problem before, but I'm interested to see what part is causing the issue!

-volvofan94

futureboycolin · Post by **futureboycolin** » 23 Jul 2014, 20:43

Just went out and looked, the backup lights come on when in R.
Also checked the tranny fluid level, seems fine, if a bit dark/brownish.

futureboycolin · Post by **futureboycolin** » 24 Jul 2014, 10:22

Anyone have any ideas on this? I really need to find a solution ASAP as this is my work car, and Indianapolis has almost nonexistent public transportation.

Fingers crossed this is something cheap/I can fix myself.

Post by **rspi** » 24 Jul 2014, 10:30

Sad to say that my car had tranny issues when I purchased it. When in R both reverse and 1 would engage causing the car to try to go forward because 1st had more torque than R. So, if I needed to go R I would shift it in R and hit the gas real quick before 1st would kick in, them knock it into N and coast back as far as I needed to. I did end up replacing my tranny.

I did have error codes, a P0500 and P0720 (or P0740) I believe. You should scan it just to be sure no codes are stored.

Disconnect the battery, pull the tranny computer, leave it out for 10 minutes then put it back. Maybe that will reset something if the tranny does not have internal issues.

futureboycolin · Post by **futureboycolin** » 24 Jul 2014, 10:41

Robert you're talking about pulling the TCU, yeah?
I scanned it last night and didn't get any transmission codes, but I have a little Actron scanner so I don't know if it can even pull transmission codes anyway.