Question for a friend of mine.....
 

She has a 95 automatic SE. The other day she told me her reverse went out all of a sudden, like it was working fine, then 30 minutes later it didn't. The other gears work fine, its not slipping or anything. I was curious on whats wrong with it. Any help would be appreciated.

OK, nobody knows whats wrong with it?

uhh... the bulbs blew?? try replacing them and see if it works then. :rolleyes:

I believe this was the first sign of a failing automatic transmission. All the autos that have blown up to my knowledge had this problem (aside from slipping inbetween gears). Since you say it doesn't slip gears...then it may not be as severe.

I don't think he was talking about the reverse light...but if he was, then yeah, check the bulbs. :D

It's not always the first sign....when the tranny in my 91 Maxima died I actually had NO warning signs. She always shifted good and never slipped. And I had to have a complete rebuild.

Now in my Regal that's another story.....Yes, Reverse was the first to go then a couple days later it was drive...

I would take the car to the tranny shop.

could be the shifter linkage or whatever it's called... what I mean is you move the shifter but it's connection with the tranny is broken. Could be as simple as that or as serious as your transmission loosing reverse.. I would hope and guess that it's the 1st one... although like Sarah said, it could be the tranny as well, on my 93 it worked well then all of the sudden it died at a light and i limped off the intersection in shame and embarassment :( I lost my reverse right away.

When my a/t went out, I lost reverse and first at the same time. It would still move in second, but you could tell that it was starting in a higher gear.

A week before it went out, I was getting a really hard, clunky shift between 1 and 2. I dropped the pan before I sent it to the shop and had chunks of a gear in the bottom.

I have heard that if the transmission is going bad the fluid will have a burnt smell,i do not know how true this is but it may help

I dont know, people told me it was probably that linkage part. I drove the car and when u put it in reverse, u could tell it went into gear, but it just didnt go anywhere.

Yeah, it feels like a line lock (like what they use at the drag strip). The tranny goes into gear but it's like there is hydraulic pressure keeping it from moving.

Check to see if it starts moving forward in 1st or in 2nd. If it is in 2nd, I'll bet it is a hard part (like a gear) in the transmission. IIRC, 1st and reverse share a gear.

My reverse went about 4 months before the rest of my tranny. reverse started slipping and finally went out. then later, the gears started slipping inbetween shifts. then 1st died (it would rev to like 5000rpm and then engage fully, meaning HUGE burnouts all the time hahaha).. that is when i finally broke down and got another automatic installed at a shop. 2 months later i pulled that perfectly good tranny out hahahha to convert to 5spd. i know, im retarded. but it was worth it !

Yeah, 1st and 2nd work fine.

The 'Linkage' part you are talking about could either be the shifter bushings or the inhibitor switch. I had problems with my inhibitor switch on my old maxima and this would prevent my car from starting (would read that my car wasn't in Park all the way) or from taking off (wouldn't read that the car was in Drive all the way). This doesn't always need to be replaced though. This can be taken out and simply cleaned (all the corrosion is taken off of the gear connectors), and if your mechanic tells you that it's impossible, he doesn't know what he's talking about. I had mine cleaned for free (then again I just had a tranny replaced).

same thing happened to me. it was slipping when shifting gears and than one night i was driving around and at a redlight it just died. when i put in D it would act real sluggish and only accelerate to 3500 rpms and no more. when i got home i had no reverse, no 1st or 2nd. all under warranty so i got a brand new tranny.