Hi All,
Hopefully you guys can help me out! As per the subject, my car's transmission died over the weekend unexpectedly. It was fine on friday for a trip out to the airport and back to pick up the in-laws (25km each way), however later on that night I noticed an issue as we went out to get dinner. We have a steep drive way and putting the car in D i noticed the car was just not engaging into the lower gears at all, it just kept revving the more i put down the accelerator... Shifting the transmission to 1 or 2 worked, as did reverse. So i manged to get up the hill and drive away and found that D would work as long as you're cruising at speed, however if you needed to accelerate (like going up any hills) it would just rev and not drop down a gear. Manually going into 1/2 would be fine again.
Got the car home that night and checked the fluid levels, which looked/smelt fine, but it did look to be on the 'full' side. I was going to get the car checked out, but as i was driving it on sat going up one of the many hills in Dunedin, I decided it was a good idea to put the car into D (as i didn't want to overrev the engine in 2) and that's when it lost all forward gears... so basically i was stranded on the side of the road. Reverse still works if that matters, but i understand that forward/reverse are on different clutches/drums.
My initial search on the internet indicates it could be anything as simple as a sensor failure, or a solenoid to a serious mechanical failure and in need of a replacement transmission.
Does this sound familiar to anyone? Can anyone in the know advise what the problem is and what ballpark figure a fix might cost? Also recommendations on a good, preferably transmission specialist, mechanic in the Dunedin area would be great.
Car is a 2000 Ford Mondeo, so not really worth alot, but it's our only car and we don't have a lot of money to buy anything decent if this car is uneconomic to fix.