Engine Auto Tranny Problem, please help

Auto Tranny Problem, please help

Hi, my gf's 98 corolla LE 4speed auto will not go into reverse after hitting a rock in the road and busting her pan and solenoid wire harness. I reinstalled a new harness and pan, but tt only wants to go forward. I check her neutral park safety switch and it looked ok, but her car does not want to go into reverse. Does anyone know how to check to see what the problem is? is there any steps i can take to verify if it's a solenoid that is broken, the tranny itself or the ecu? thanx

must have been a pretty huge fuggin rock she hit..

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This happened to me (minus the rock). It was a broken snap-ring, and its probably gonna cost you a lot of pennies. I'd take it over to a tranny mechanic for a diagnostic.

LMAO! I was thinkin the same thing! Did she really try offroading, jump a divider or catch some air? And then u jus called it hitting a rock ... Back to the topic tho check the snap ring, what exactly happened after she hit the "rock", did car still move etc etc etc?

Yeah it was a huge rock in the road in the mountains. She hit it while going around a corner, spun out and got really close to being launched off the side of the cliff. When she hit the rock, all the fluid fell out of the pan and the car only moved in reverse. She didn't drive it tho because of course there was not fluid in the pan. Now that i fixed the pan and harness that were visually broken, it only wants to go forward, and thats through all the gears.

Is the snap ring part of the planetary gear set? If so i might just start looking for a replacement tranny to swap in because it so is not worth fixing an automatic tranny at a shop.

Does anyone know a way to test the computer to make sure that when the wires broke and grounded to the tranny they did not short the ECU itself? Does anyone know how to test the solenoids? how much did it run for you to take it to the shop for a diagnostic?

Thanx for all of your help:-D

The snapring is a small thin metal ring that prevents the counter shaft from moving in the transmission case. Mine went out and in the process damaged the casing, so I had to rebuild my tranny and it cost about 3g's.

The diagnostic itself cost about 600, cuz they had to take the tranny apart. From what you're telling us it doesn't sound like its gonna be cheap...

goodluck w/that!

O I C. So this shaft that is held by the snap ring, is it what actually engages the reverse gear? I spoke with a tech at toyota and his theory was that the shaft that is controlled by the gear selector to engage the spool up valve is stuck in the drive position and is not moving back or forth to engage the reverse gear, neutral etc. he said it would be smarter just to buy a used tranny and throw it in, which is probably what i'm goign to do. Oh well there goes another 500 bux, so no more 5 lug swap for my 240