Every Gear Acts Like Neutral

Suggest you take it back to the very reputable mechanic....

PeterOut wrote:

Is the shift linkage really doing anything?

Instead of reputable mechanic, how about you find a competent mechanic?

I don't understand the question. Changing between R, N, D, D2, etc. does not make any difference.

Thanks, Peter.

I guess it's too bad we didn't see this before we bought it :(

This tells you no more about your specific problem than you now know.

Bob is suggesting that the shift lever is disconnected from the transmission.

_Is_ every gear neutral? Perhaps you are still in Park. Can you push the car by hand with the parking brake off?

If it is still in the 30-day trial period, hire a tow truck and take it back.

Jeff

I just tried the car out again. Park is not neutral. It acts as I would expect "park" to act. It is the only setting that does not act as neutral.

Thanks, Peter.

How does the car act differently between park and the other gears?

The only difference between park and neutral is that there is a mechanism that prevents the drive shafts from turning.

However, this does indicate that the shift lever is connected to the transmission.

Jeff

Unfortunately it is not. We thought we were covering our bases by taking it to a supposedly reputable mechanic during that period. They found no problems. Perhaps the next step should be a class action suit but I am not sure how successful that will be since it was far from being a new car.

I guess that's not good. Seems like a problem with the transmission.

And you don't know what the problem is.

Lotsa luck with a class action suit. You're reading too many newspapers or comic books. Learn what is wrong with the car before you start mapping a brilliant legal strategy. The first (and likely the LAST) question you need to answer is "What warranty, if any, did you get with the car?" If your answer is "Uh, well, the bill of sale says "No Warranty, express or implied. Vehicle sold "As-Is"" you are, as they say in the legal biz: SCREWED!

With no warranty, you have little recourse against the seller. He has no duty to repair it and you'll find it very difficult to show that he defrauded you when you already took the opportunity to check it out with your own mechanic beforehand.

Hell, we don't even know HOW long it's been since you bought the car, "recently" being a relative term. Nor do we know how many miles was on the car and is on the car now.

You haven't bothered to let us know of any symptoms which may have been observed before the fatal "everything is neutral."

I suspect, like others, that the linkage PROBABLY is connected but from your poor description of the circumstance, it's possible that you don't know what you're talking about when you say PARK works normally. Does PARK just lock the ignition and steering wheel or does it actually engage the parking pawl in the transmission? i.e., when it's in park, can you push the car? When the car is rolling VERY slowly (you push, wife works the shift) and you put it in PARK is there a grabbing and quick stop of the car? If there isn't, it's not going into PARK and the linkage is again suspect. Even if the interlock works in PARK, I "think" there may be a possibility that the interlock could work WITHOUT the linkage to the transmission still being connected and/or properly adjusted.

Bottom line: Everyone, especially yourself, needs to have more information before you get beyond having a car that doesn't move.

Thank you for your reply. We bought just over a month ago. It had

92839 miles when we bought it and we have since put about 500 miles on it, 275 since it was checked by a mechanic. When my wife drove it yesterday, it was slow getting into gear and then it revved up a bit when it was in gear. When my son drove it today, it gradually got progressively worse but somehow he managed to get home in it. However, when I tried it the gears did not appear to engage at all. The only gear that did not act like neutral was Park. The car was on a slight downward incline and rolled with every setting expect park. When I put it into park, it stopped rolling. My son and I can each bench-press 200 pounds but we were not able to push it up the slight incline when it was in Park with the brake off.

| >> Jeff | >

| > Unfortunately it is not. We thought we were covering our bases by | > taking it to a supposedly reputable mechanic during that period. They | > found no problems. Perhaps the next step should be a class action | > suit but I am not sure how successful that will be since it was far | > from being a new car. | | | Lotsa luck with a class action suit. You're reading too many newspapers | or comic books. Learn what is wrong with the car before you start | mapping a brilliant legal strategy. The first (and likely the LAST) | question you need to answer is "What warranty, if any, did you get with | the car?" If your answer is "Uh, well, the bill of sale says "No | Warranty, express or implied. Vehicle sold "As-Is"" you are, as they | say in the legal biz: SCREWED!

This is sounding like a linkage problem but obviously we cannot accurately diagnosis the problem via cyberspace... and predicting future failure is not much different from reading tea leaves without tearing everything apart. I also don't know how a class could be certified in this case but there still may be legal recourse depending upon where the OP lives. This as some states have their own laws regarding used automobiles ("Lemon Laws"). NY has a used car warranty law that goes up to 90 days and 4,000 miles contingent upon selling price and odometer reading. For the OP it might be worth exploring this issue with State Attorney General's office if the dealer's position is contrary to state law.

For example

John

A) If the problem is inside the transmission, unless you were willing to pay for a tear down, there wasn't much he/she could do to see if this was going to happen.

B) What class action? Are thousands of people affected by this 1 mechanic not predicting a future issue with a 6 year old used car? Or do you mean against Honda who sold this car 6 years ago and weren't the ones responsible for maintaining it?

Shit happens. That's the bottom line. Hopefully it is something minor link the linkage.

Linkage to the transaxle apparently AOK. Get it to a reputable (if you can find one) transmission shop. Also check at a Honda dealer and see what they will charge you.

I had a transmission go out on a Buick and the dealership was able to replace it with a completely remanufactured GM Goodwrench transmission for less $$ than having it rebuilt by one of the chains or independents. The best part of it was that they warranty on the on the Goodwrench tranny was longer than the warranty on the original driveline. (either

50K miles or 60K miles - go figure)

Who knows? Honda may offer something similar. Won't hurt to check.

And the warranty I asked about and you didn't respond to? That's kinda what I thought.

Check the transmission fluid. If the fluid level gets low enough, you won't get any output from the torque converter.