transmission clunk

[EricT Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close EricT]

Hi everyone

backed my 120 diesel out today and wouldn't move , gave it a few more revs and there was a small " clunk" and reverse engaged

all good since then , reverse selects no problem...any ideas?..transmission , uni joint?

The handbrake WAS off

[Brett1979 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Brett1979]

The next time you take the car out, as soon as you get home with the transmission still hot, check the transmission dipstick.
If the trans fluid is a little low it will need to be topped up. Low level trans fluid can cause this problem, especially if you need to reverse up a slight hill. If you stop the car at a stop sign too for example, the transmission may not want to kick back down into first gear for a few seconds. Hopefully this is all it is.

[MacroP Member Find all posts View Profile Close MacroP]

I wonder if the weight of the car was resting on the transmission parking lock and it was perhaps a little stuck when you took it out of park and put it into drive (or reverse) and it took a few revs to pop it out? The parking lock is the thing you hear going click click click if you go into park without the vehicle completely stopped first.

[Tazdevil Moderated member Find all posts View Profile Close Tazdevil]

Had you just washed the car or driven through water?

this will sometimes casue the handbrake shoes to stick and casue the noise you have explained.

[EricT Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close EricT]

Clunk fixed,another issue

The next time you take the car out, as soon as you get home with the transmission still hot, check the transmission dipstick.
If the trans fluid is a little low it will need to be topped up. Low level trans fluid can cause this problem, especially if you need to reverse up a slight hill. If you stop the car at a stop sign too for example, the transmission may not want to kick back down into first gear for a few seconds. Hopefully this is all it is.

Topped up the auto trans ..all good , but now won't go into low on the main box..transfer box low is OK

[EricT Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close EricT]

Clunk and not selecting low all fixed

Topped up the auto trans ..all good , but now won't go into low on the main box..transfer box low is OK

Problems all fixed , selecting gears now smooth as silk

[Brett1979 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Brett1979]

So it was just the transmission fluid level? Good to hear the problem's gone now.

[EricT Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close EricT]

Clunk

Yes it was

thanks for the advice

the disappointing thing is that the car was serviced 10 days ago and I specifically asked for the auto trans to be serviced

for which I was charged $105 , I didn't give it another thought , a bit like checking wheel nuts after new or rotated tyres , I assumed the service provider changed the fluid and checked levels both hot and cold

just goes to show...maybe my fault , but then again I had new power points put into my house by a licensed electrician and I didn't feel it necessary to check all his work ( wouldn't know what I was looking at anyhow)


ET

[Brett1979 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Brett1979]

Sorry to hear that Eric. It would be disappointing.

$105 sounds like they just dropped out the 2 to 3.5 litres that comes out when you remove the transmission sump bolt. It's the amount of fluid that the pan just holds at any given time. If you actually wanted all of the transmission fluid changed, and I know this is wrong, you've got to request a flush with all new fluid to replace the old. My 90 series holds 11 litres in total throughout the transmission. I'd imagine yours would be very similar. What they've done is pretty much a waste of time if your fluid was dark, smelled burnt and needed raplacing, and if you thought the transmission fluid was good for another couple of years since the "service" was done. How much did you have to top it up by?

A 1L bottle of transmission fluid = $11 (Castrol)
A 4L bottle of transmission fluid = $38.(Castrol)

After their markup is added to the fluid and labour on top of that, for $105 they only just replaced what was in the pan.
But you can certainly replace the 2 to 3.5L each time yourself quite easily. Do it say, once a week or once a fortnight for 4 times or more in total for example for greatly improved transmission fluid quality. if you're keen I can explain how to in a paragragh. It's really not that hard. Doing a complete flush of the system in one go is probably a tad advanced for you at the moment by the sounds of it as theres a little bit of initial outlay and a bit going on at once during the flush to keep an eye on.