Well today on my way to work my winter beater decided to die. Driving 80km/hr there was a chattering noise coming from the front of the car. If I took my foot off the gas it would go away. As soon as you applied any gas it came back. The more gas, the louder it got. I then came to a stop sign. The car was hesitant to start moving but when it finally did, in order to go 80km/hr again the rpm was now at 3,000 (compared to approx 1,700) before. I then pulled into work, stopped the car to back up into a spot but no reverse. Tried going forward, no drive. Tried 1st, 2nd gears. No luck. Turned the car off, back on. Still nothing. Pushed the car backwards then tried using forward gear. Nothing. Put the car in drive and I was able to push the car backwards (with some resistance). So, is it safe to assume the transmission is shot, or could it be something else? I thought maybe it is the cable that connects to the shifter but that wouldn't explain the chattering noise I heard or the high rpm's. Man, only 4 more weeks till this thing was off the road and planned on replacing it next fall.

 

You should be able to see whether the detent is operating from the outside of the trans. It is highly unlikely that part on the inside is gone. I've rebuilt many transmissions and have never seen that part fail internally. Sounds alot like the tq converter itself is toast. They can make those noises and would cause the complete loss all of a sudden. How many miles are on it? Has it been slipping recently or just all of a sudden now? What is the fluid level? Has the fluid been changed/flushed lately? You can pull the pan to check for sure. If there is alot of brass shavings in it it is the Tq converter for sure.

 

About 2 months ago, if the car sat for a week it had a hard time going into reverse then that issue went away (yes, I know that is the first indicator that something is wrong). There are 165,000km on the car. Fluid level is find. Fluid was changed at 100,000 km.

 

I'm still going to guess torque converter at minimum. At 165K miles you are doing pretty good on the original auto trans anyhow definately shop time. The reverse thing isn't necessarily an indication of the current problem. A week of idleness on an old trans can do that easily.