Hi,

I was coming back from Toronto yesterday during a heavy rain in traffic. During the trip I had to brake quite hard which resulted in the car sliding for about 20 ft before it came to a stop. Anyhow, when I started moving again I noticed the car was sluggish when starting from a stop. I check to make sure that it was in gear (D) and the hand brake was not applied. All seemed fine. When I got on the expressway I noticed that the overdrive didn't engage. The car was in 3rd gear all the way home for the 60 minute ride. When stopped at a traffic light, I tried manually putting the car in 1st then 2nd gear, nothing. I tried putting the OD on and off with the use of the button on the gear selector, still nothing. At least that explained why the car was sluggish off the line, it was in only one gear, the 3rd!

I got home and verified that the auto tranny fluid was up to the mark, it was fine, nice and clean. I shut off the engine, and restarted it, thinking that the ECM would cycle on again. I worked, all the tranny speeds (gears) work again. So what happened? I'm thinking that during the heavy braking the ECM was 'jarred' and hence the tranny locked in whatever gear it was in. But when I restarted the car, the ECM 'rebooted' and all works again.

Is this a tranny issue, or perhaps an ECM issue? Any thoughts on the matter. I will call the dealer service dept on Monday to talk over, but would like your input/suggestions.

BTW, the car is a 1996, with 180K km and auto tranny.

Thanks,

 

It's called limp mode, and was most likely a result of your lock up while you were braking. If you had simply turned the car off and restarted it when you first realized it was in 3rd gear, your drive home would have been fine.