1993 Saturn SL Reverse Gear Automatic Transmission Problem

Sep 07, 2007 4 Replies

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1993SL 18 years ago

I have a 1993 Saturn SL. On cold starts in the morning there is no problem putting the car into reverse gear (automatic) and driving. However, after the car has been warmed up and has been running for awhile if you try to put car into reverse there is a delay and then it goes into reverse with a rather loud and violent jerk or it will just hang there. If you slow press the accelerator then it seems to go into the reverse gear but you have to be careful otherwise it clunks and jerks back suddenly. In drive and neutral gear there is no problem.

The "Service Engine Soon" light is also on in the dash every on and then. The error code from the scanner reads Code 12, but I cannot find anyone to tell me what to fix for this code?

Took it to a transmission place and the mechanic told me the reverse clutch was broken and would cost $900 parts and labour included and he would rebuild the existing transmission?

Any ideas on the cause of this problem, how to fix and approximate cost?

Cheers...

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R Miller 18 years ago

Go to saturn fans and search for 'reverse slam'/ There are lots of posts. Here's one to start with.

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raamman 18 years ago

with.http://www.saturnfans.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-23670.html- Hidequoted text -

we had that probem with our 02 sl1; took it into the shop the next day. they replaced 2 burned out solenoids- at a good penny...2 weeks after having taken the car in for regular service and being told then the car was in beautiful shape, couldn't find anything wrong then...huh ! real confidence inspring

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Bob Shuman 18 years ago

When a solenoid fails, it usually goes open circuit, so it either works or doesn't. I'm not trying to defend Saturn or the dealer who you had do the work, but in this case the failure could not have been detected prior to the actual failure two weeks later. That said, for me at least, TWO simultaneous solenoid failures seems hard to chalk up to coincidence.

Bob

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raamman 18 years ago

thank you for your information Bob, I have found myself increasingly distrustful of Saturn dealerships over the years and every occurance or incident just reinforces that, combined with the knowledge that business is very slow for them. The 1st part of your reply is comforting, the 2nd undoes the 1st- so it is very balanced.

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