No Gears at all

[peterw]

HI, new here. I have a problem with my '97 Legnum 1.8 auto.

I have no gears at all and I was hoping some of the experts here might be able to enlighten me.

I was accelerating from a 50k zone to a 100k zone and it dod not happen; I just coasted to a stop. I cars just revs like it is in neutral.
If you put the car in gear from idle the revs go up a notch but no go. Forward or reverse, nothing. The transmission oil looks fine and is clear.

I have had all sorts of "it could be this" comments (including computer chip) but I thought I would see if anyone here might have had a previous experience or ideas on what is wrong.

The car has done 230000km and is in very tidy condition for its age (both inside and out), but I do not want to spends hundreds of dollars just to find out it will cost a grand or two to fix. I would sell it as is or to a wreakers if that is what I am looking at.

Can anyone help?

Peter

[Nick Mann]

What does the dashboard do?

[peterw]

Not sure what you are asking, but everything looks normal. There are no warning lights if that is what you mean.

[Davezj]

does the dash say you are in Drive.
what happens when you move the gear selector. does it act normally, e.g. cycle through the gears.

could it be you are actually in neutral, and the cable has slipped on the selector switch on top of the auo box. or the bracket has broken holding the cable in place.
I would suggest doing some visual checks to see if moving the gear stick does what it is suposed to do, e.g. move the gear selector switch on top of the gear box.

it could be a lot of things, the more info you can give about the issue the more help you will get.

[elnevio]

The potential warning light flashing would be the N of the PRND4321 indicators on the dash. I'm not sure if yours is a high vis dash, or a normal dash, but I'm sure the lights function the same.

Either way, you can still pull any stored fault codes, which may give you an indication if something monitored has failed.

[Nick Mann]

Exactly above. You should have lights on the dash saying what gear you are in. The N light might flash if there is a fault that the ecu knows about. It's possible that the speedo will still think you are moving even if you aren't. So a description of what the dashboard is doing as you go into gear and try to accelerate would be useful to help us try to work out what is wrong.

[peterw]

The N light does not flash at all. You have a constant light showing what position you are in P R N D. If you go through the manual gate, the D light goes out and it shows you in first gear. This is all exactly as is was when everything was OK. The only thing I found is that in the manual gate you can only change between first and second gear; it will not go into third, even if you have the revs up.

[Nick Mann]

Assuming that you have oil in the gearbox, my best guess is that the torque converter and input shaft splines have gone. The torque converter will no longer be driving the input shaft of the gearbox. If that is the case you might get away with replacing the torque converter but I would recommend replacing theb input shaft splines too, they will be damaged and will cause your new torque converter to fail prematurely.

[Davezj]

Nick you previous quest about putting the car in gear and reving the engine was very cever, it allows the diagnosis if it is the input to the gear box or the out from the gear box.
so if you are in gear and and you rev the car the speedo shows speed and you have no movement of the car then the output of the gear box would be the likely fail. and vice versa if no speed is registered on the speedo.
i am not sure peter understood the relavance of the question about the speedo.

peter, when you are in tip tiptronic mode (manual gear shift) you can only select 1st and 2nd when the car is not moving. you need to be at about 20mph before the ecu will allow 3rd to be selected and about 30mph before 4th gear can be selected. (well they are the speeds in the 5 gear auto box in the VR4).
is this car new to you or have you had it for some time.

[peterw]

The speedo does not register when you rev the car while in gear, it stays at zero.
I have had the car since 2008 and done 50k in it

[Davezj]

i was just suprised you did not that you can only select 1st and 2nd in tip mode, i was not sure if you had just bought it and it broke soon after.
but that clears it up.

[BubbaLeggyVR4]

If it revs but no go then something has broke between engine and gearbox.
I would go with most suggestions on here first, is selector actually selecting?
Has it got enough oil? Then I would be thinkin torque converter, clutch on a manual easy to diagnose, autos more difficult :)

[peterw]

Thanks guys for all your help. It confirms to me that the problem is not a simple fix and may well be the torque converter. I will make inquiries as to the best way to go. I think with a car as tidy as it is, even if I were to sell it I think it would be better fixed and running. I will let you know what the outcome is and especially if I ascertain exactly what was wrong. Don't hold your breath though as car is off the road for 3 months, we are surviving fine on one car, so I am not in a hurry.

Thanks again for all your advice.

[elnevio]

Good plan! A non-runner is only worth a few hundred quid or so now. :(