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I hit a bad pothole today and immediately, it was like I was in Neutral. The pot hole was bad enough to rattle my teeth and it really jolted the truck. Pressing the gas pedal just revved the engine, but I couldn't engage any gears.
Was able to coast over to the side of the road. Absolutely no gears would engage, no drive options and no reverse. I could push it over to the side of the road. So, basically, the truck just acts like it's in neutral. Started up fine, could rev the engine - just couldn't engage any gears at all.
Was able to call AAA and get it towed to my mechanic, who will check it out tomorrow. But, I thought I'd ask you all what you think it could be.
The only upside to this, is that I did learn that I can file a claim with the city and could possibly get reimbursed for the costs. We'll see.
Would appreciate your opinions. Thanks.
Oh, the vehicle is a rear wheel drive 93 Nissan pickup, automatic. 180K miles.
Mine too. Although I suppose your shifter link could have broken off at the 'neutral' position. A quick look under the vehicle should give you some idea.
Thanks so much everyone. So, my mechanic looked at it, and nothing was loose, as far as looking at the transmission without taking it apart. He suggested a transmission shop, and AAA actually towed it to the transmission shop for free. I had no idea AAA would do that. But, since it was being towed from one mechanic to another, since the first one couldn't fix it, they towed it for free. Yay for AAA.
The transmission shop told me their initial thought was that it was caused by hitting the pot hole, because they could hear something rattling around inside it. But, their guy who actually takes it apart hasn't seen it yet. He probably won't be able to get into it until after the holiday, as he's taking a vacay starting Saturday, until the 5th.
They did give me a discount because of my mechanic referring me, but ouch - it will cost $900 just for them to take it apart and let me know what it needs. The worst case scenario is that it would need a complete rebuild and the $900 would go towards that, with the entire cost with tax being about $2,200. They offer a 12 month, 12,000 mile warranty with that.
Hopefully, it won't be that bad, but I figure, if they're going to have it apart, might as well go ahead and rebuild it.
So, there goes my savings account lol. But, oh well, that's what it's there for.
And it seems like their opinion is that hitting the pot hole did cause the damage, so I might be able to get the city to reimburse me, at least some of the money. We'll see.
As to the question regarding how bad the pot hole was. It was a strip across the entire road, where they had apparently jackhammered the road to get down to fix a pipe or maybe a cable or something like that. The fill job was not level with the road. I took photos of it while waiting for the AAA tow truck guy. I'd say the divet - not sure what to call it - was around 6" lower than the level of the road. Enough, so that when my truck hit it going maybe 30 mph - we had to slow down because of the construction crew - it jarred my teeth and immediately, I had no gears.
So, something is broken inside the transmission. I'll know what exactly next week.
Thanks everyone. I'll let you know what happens.
Even though I only paid $2,000 for this old truck, I figure it's still cheaper to repair it than buy a newer vehicle. It's really dependable and really cheap to insure and register. And I love the size of it. Too bad they quit making tiny pickups like mine. It's so small, it's actually hard to see in the parking lot. I love that mine has the extended cab and an automatic transmission. It's just so handy to have a little pickup. People have asked me why I need a pickup, but I actually use it fairly often. Just bought a big cabinet off Craigslist last week, and it was so nice to be able to just go get it and throw it in the back of the truck.
The only things I wish it had was air conditioning and electric windows. Otherwise, I just love it. Depending on the vehicle, I do think it's better to just fix them than buy a newer used vehicle with unknown problems.
Plus, I can't retire it with the state of CA if it can't drive into the Pick n Pull on it's own power lol. Need a working tranny to do that anyway. Sigh.
I a broken u joint the drive shaft would be dragging on the ground.
Depends on the car. Some cars do capture the driveshaft. I snapped a front U-joint on an AWD Infiniti at 80MPH and the shaft was captured so it never touched the ground....it just flopped around and broke a bunch of other stuff.
Anyway, for the OP, I would imagine the impact jarred something loose inside the trans that could have failed with a combination of being under load plus the impact. That had to be one hell of a bump, but regardless the trans shouldn't have just done that. How many miles were on it? Is the car worth a $2200 rebuild?
I wouldn't hold my breath on getting the city to pay for your trans. I had a hard enough time proving a HUGE pothole destroyed my rim/tire even with photos of the mangled wheel 10 feet from the pothole. I would think transmission failure would be harder to prove as your tires/suspension are still fine (I assume). Even I would have a hard enough time believing that if I wasn't reading this thread. My first reaction would be to say the transmission was on it's way out and failure was inevitable.
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