Q: Sometimes when I shift my car's automatic transmission into Drive it stays in neutral. Reverse works and trans fluid is full.
My car's transmission will be working fine for days or even weeks. But then suddenly the transmission will not shift into Drive, the car stays in Neutral. Park and Reverse work fine. The shift will be in Drive, but the dashboard indicator will read N. I tried to determine if weather had something to do with it, but it happens randomly in all weather conditions.
Trans fluid is new and full. The dealership replaced the transmission under Kia warranty at no cost to me with brand new factory transmission. The problem continued to occur maybe once a week. About 75% of the time, if I disconnect and reconnect the battery, then restart the car, it goes into Drive again and it may be fine for another week. Eventually that battery trick does not work and the car needs to be towed. Six tows and counting. Kia dealership techs have no idea what is causing it, labor costs were mounting. So I had it dropped back home.
My car has 55000 miles.
My car has an automatic transmission.
It is very possible that you could have some internal transmission damage. I would recommend enlisting in the assistance of a qualified transmission professional to inspect your transmission for internal faults. I must warn that this could be a pricy inspection as it may involve the removal and disassembly of the transmission. However, this is a sure fire way to determine if any internal damage has occured. The good news is that if any damage has occured, it can easily be resolved at that time since the transmissoin has already been disassembled.
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