Reverse just stopped working

[FlyingZippy]

My 04 Pathy has 277k miles.
Lately, the transmission hasn't been shifting as smoothly. Yesterday, Reverse completely stopped working. No change to characteristics in Drive.

A few years back I did change my throttle pedal, which fixed a TPS problem. Maybe this could have led to transmission problems? Or it could be that I've been regularly towing a 5000lbs travel trailer for the last year and half

Anyway, anyone know of an easy fix to keep my baby on the road?

[EdBwoy]

regularly towing a 5000lbs travel trailer for the last year and half

Haha. That'll do it in...
More of a connection there than the former.

Unfortunately, any cheap and/or preventative measures like fluid changes and a transmission cooler might not do much for you at this point. I'd buy a replacement. I once paid $250 for a used RWD trans, delivered + about 200 for labor.

Definitely cheaper than full diagnosis and rebuilding.

[nickelghandi]

I had mine go out last year. I lost reverse and 1st and 2nd sounded like a dump truck. It was almost $4,000 for full job, but they did some other stuff too. I am 4WD. The shop I had perform the work is extremely good and came highly recommended too.

It can be done cheaper. I had other quotes between $1800-$3500. It depends on where they source the replacement from, what they do to the replacement to ensure it will work, if you want to rebuild vs. replace, and other stuff like that.

One thing to note is that you will want to have the system totally flushed out to eliminate any metal fragments that might be floating around. Those would kill your new transmission pretty quickly. I also had the shop bypass the radiator and install an auxiliary cooler in the front.

It is likely that your transmission is completely shot and nothing will bring it back, but you can always try the stop slip stuff in the colorful bottles at the auto parts store. I kept a 99 accord on the road with that stuff and regular changes for almost a year before I sold it to someone who planned to fix it.

[FlyingZippy]

Thanks for the reply and sharing that info. $1800 is only a little less than what my car is now currently worth. I'm going to take it in, and have and a diagnostic done, but chances of keeping this car going much longer at that price are pretty low.
I'm still holding out hope that it's something simple like a solenoid, because this is the best car I've ever owned! I'll be sure to let you guys know what I find.

[2001qx4guy]

Make sure to check transmission fluid level. I lost reverse and got it back after adding 2 qts. of fluid! Not sure where the lost fluid went but everything's been fine for the last couple of thousand miles.

[noor_ar]

We had the same issue first reverse wont engage when cold and warming up a few mins did the job and later it would take around 20-30 mins and 3rd gear went out too ! We just rebuilt the transmission cost us ~915 USD here in Dubai (Labor here is cheaper then the US)