This Saturday, my 1996 Toyota Tercel ( with about 95K ) had suddenly started slipping gears. If I had pushed the engine too hard, the gear would not work. If I went up a hill, the drive gear would not work. The same thing went if I had gone in reverse as well.
I didn’t drive the car until I had a chance to take it to a shop on Monday. I took it to a local shop who had diagnosed it as a bad transmission, which would probably need repair or replacement. I was dumbfounded, since I had done the routine flush of the transmission when I bought the car, and the former owner took great car of the car as well.
I was recommended to an AAMCO center a few miles away, and I had my car towed there. The next day, the center called me and told me that there was nothing wrong with my car. They said that they had test driven it cold and hot, and that it was working perfectly.
The guy said he didn’t know why I had this problem, but said it could’ve been something to do with my coolant system. My only problem is that the car had the same problem when I rested it for two days.
But I guess it works ( for now ), but has anyone had any similar problems? Has this ever happened to anyone? Does anyone know why this would happen?
Wildest of all guesses, bad motor mounts causing the linkage to put the car in neutral under stress. I’ll bet aamco did not do a road test, just put the foot on the brake and shifted between R and D and everything sounded fine.
I am hoping this is not true, because when it wasn’t working, it wouldn’t move. It would be blatant I could not get out of their center. In the condition it was in, I could barely move more than 10 feet, so we will see about whether they road tested it when I try to take it home.
How would a bad motor mount be a symptom, how would this problem be caused ( wear over time ? ) and how would this be fixed?
Motor mounts will be cheaper than a transmission. good luck!