Occasional Engine Stall Shifting to Reverse
 

Thanks in advance for any light people can shed. The engine occasionally (once every 5 to 10 attempts) quits after I shift from park to reverse. And there is always a few second lag shifting from park to reverse and reverse to drive. I changed out the fluid about 4,000 miles ago and have a 1994 so I don't think it could be the faulty gasket. Original transmission, no lights or codes, and it feels pretty good going forward.

Re: Occasional Engine Stall Shifting to Reverse
 

When you say. "it quits" does it just quietly die, or does it bump into reverse and stall?

Harvey.

Re: Occasional Engine Stall Shifting to Reverse
 

Bumps into reverse and immediately stalls.

Re: Occasional Engine Stall Shifting to Reverse
 

And it does not do the same when you go from P to D?

Harvey.

Re: Occasional Engine Stall Shifting to Reverse
 

It has never stalled going from park to D and the bump seems a lot less of a bump than going into reverse.

Re: Occasional Engine Stall Shifting to Reverse
 

The test for checking the lag time for P to N and P to R, says, 1.2seconds for P to N,. 1.5 seconds for the P to R. engine warm and idling.
Does it feel that yours is the same as the above, for both, or is the P to R shift longer?

What ever it is, the idle solenoid is not keeping up with the speed change.

Harvey.

Re: Occasional Engine Stall Shifting to Reverse
 

Thanks for the help Harvey.

I was checking into this more while driving today. As I recall, the engine has only stalled when the car was cold. This could also be why I never have seen it stall going from P to D because I rarely park such that I can go forward with the car cold.

During today's driving around I noticed that the time to shift gears if fine when it's warm, but much slower cold.

Is this something that I should worry about fixing? Right now it's more of a nuisance (and occasional embarrassment) than a big problem.

Re: Occasional Engine Stall Shifting to Reverse
 

There are some things the can go wrong in the box that would cause a slow reverse engagement. Thats why I suggested that you check the lag time.
You need a stopwatch, engine/trans, warm and idling. Start the time as you pull it into gear, stop when you feel the engagement. If both are slow, it can just be low line pressure. If the P to N is ok, but the P to R is slower, it can be a problem starting.
If the lag time is OK, then it is likely just the Idle control valve a bit stuck and responding too slow to hold the Idle.

Harvey.

Re: Occasional Engine Stall Shifting to Reverse
 

I should have added, that if the P to R is longer than 2 seconds, the torque control will have turned back off, so the reverse is engaging with all cylinders working. That will cause a hard engagement that may cause the cutout.

Harvey.