Has anyone had the problem of their transmission not going into reverse? It has happened with mine six times now. The display does not indicate any letter for the gear and the transmission is not in gear. Sometimes the display indicates "N" instead of "R" and it is still not in gear. Sometimes, it does this in "D" also. If I let it sit when it is indicating "N" instead of "R", an alarm starts sounding. Any help?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jim McDonough -
Rebecca - there are two problems. My wife has had both.
1. Shifter stuck, takes extreme force to move it at all.
2. Shifter not stuck, but the car doesn't really go into gear. The display is blank.
Either is a serious problem, disabling the car.
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There are at least two problems associated with the shifters.
The shifter won't move. The car gets stuck in park.
The shifter moves but does not engage when moved to reverse.
I had both of them...
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Mike and Jim: your problem could be mechanical. Whereas mine seems to be entirely software. Just today it happened again: I pulled up in front of my house, braked, put it in Park, checked my closeness to the neighbor's driveway, then put it back into Drive (intending to pull a little bit farther forward.) But the gear would not engage. Reverse also did not work. But I have no problem moving the stick into gear and the display shows that it is in gear.
THis has happen twice now in less than a week, previously it had only happened 5-6 times in 20 months. The first few times it happened, I could fix it by turning the car OFF, then back on. Today and last week, that trick did not work. At least not right away. Today I tried turning the car back on after about 10 minutes, and it was fixed. Seems like a software issue: turning the car off "clears" the computer memory, maybe......
So I called the 800 number and they wrote this all down and promised me that even when my warranty expires in August, this continuing problem would be covered. They also said I'd be one of the first they contact, when/if they come up with a solution to this problem. So now I just have to hope this never happens in traffic.....
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Permalink Reply by Jim McDonough
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It sounds like the clutch problem. I would encourage you to bring it in to be fixed as soon as possible. It is a safety issue.
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I just dropped it off at SF Smart Car and "Frank" is going to check it out. I'll be amazed if he can fix it, but that would be great! I'll let you know what they come up with.
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