Check your battery voltage.

Find out which transmission you have: GM or ZF.

Clean your wheel speed sensors.

Check your transmission fluid level.


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Identify your tranny first. That will tell you what options you have. GM uses a solenoid vs the ZF which uses a reverse drum. I opted Once I learned the differences and what trans I had to simply by a working used and trans, perform a refresh on the oil pump, gaskets, and bolts. Still ended up bringing the car to a tranny shop once I got into the job. It's doable, but I ran into some issued that my tool bag couldn't resolve.

Certainly checking your trans fluid levels and topping off is. Good start, but do a "no reverse" search and you'll see it's almost always not that.

Good luck

 

Where would i find what type of transmission build is on the car? What would i look for? Do i need to check with the dealer via my VIN or year of build of my car?

 

A GM tranny has a flat, smooth tranny fluid pan. A ZF trannyhas a ribbed tranny fluid pan.

 

Okay i think i found it on Realoem. A5S325Z is the ZF 5HP19.

 

Exactly how you do it!

No reverse on ZF is the drum lip breaking.

You must rebuild it to fix it.


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Wouldnt i hear any type of grinding or anything close to that when putting the car into reverse? If its broken i can imagine its just spins freely since there is no teeth lets say to grab onto. would the only way to findout would be to flush out the tranny and see if there's any metal particles.

 

I had this happen to me on lunch one day at work. I let the car sit for about 20 minuets and it went away. I did not have any codes come up and I have had the abs light on for a while. I think my spped and brake wear sensors are jacked up so idk. But mine went away in 20 min so I never followed up on it. Also my battery may have been loose.

 

And now thst I think about it a few years ago reverse would not work on and off for a whole winter and went away on its own never followed up on that either. Maybe my tranny is slowly dying ..shit...

 

hello all! new here.. Not to Jack a post by any means..but im having a little bit of an issue with my 2002 325xi. After replacing my cylinder head because of the dreaded coolant system failing. i have fallen into another problem. my car is in limp mode and i cannot seem to get it out.. ill give you all a little back ground as to what lead up to the issue. after putting my car back together i started it and it idled rough..my first thought at that point was that it was cause it had not ran in a while. so i took it down the road a ways. on the way down the road i shifted it down into 4th drove til the rpms reached about 4500 and then shifted into 5th.. after that i threw it back in drive mode. Once it was in drive mode the dsc abs brake and gear with exclamation point came on..this is the first bmw i have ever owned and had no clue what any of that meant..sure enough it was slow and stuck in one gear..(3rd i believe) i took it home and searched all over the internet..I originally thought it was my maf..it is not. i checked my battery and alternator. Both check out fine.. the camshaft position sensor has been replaced with a new one..i have been to a shop to have the codes cleared..according to the shop they cannot communicate with the transmission..here are what codes are throwing.(i dont think any of these can put it into limp mode) P0057, p0037, p0051, p0031, p0365, and p0600 if any of you all could shed some light on this situation it would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

 

I've got the same issue. Mine is a GM transmission. Did you get this issue sorted?

 

ZF = a reverse drum rebuild. As I said I opted to replace rather than repair with a used low Mile tranny. You can drive the car just fine all the forward gears will work and there is no grinding or anything, but you have no reverse.

Makes it difficult to get you emissions and forgetting to park on a hill or pull forward in a spot. Embarrassing to push your car out of a spot..... I've done it.

Your looking at $2500-3000 easy. Call some auto tranny shops in your area or go for broke and try replacing yourself. You might save some coin, but it's well worth having a pro tech do the install... For sure!

 

So update for now, not much but i pulled to usual codes -

P0102 - Powertrain, Mass or Volume Air Flow Circuit Low Input
P0720 - Powertrain, Output Speed Sensor Circuit

I know my MAF has been fUp so i'll replace that regardless tomorrow just to get that out of the way. Check all the plugs around the tranny and might drain the tranny as well to see if anything shows up. Pieces of metal, etc... before if take to the shop. Other than that, all else fails, i'll pickup the drum kit and pull the tranny out and have the local shop do for me to save me time.

 

Been reading more posts here. Some think replacing the Output Speed Sensor/Pulse Generator might fix the issue. Has anyone done this replacement?