599 - Reverse (gear unavailable)

Hi all

weird one today

car recently serviced and driven less than 50 miles but just come out of two weeks storage on trickle charge

all fine till trying to select rear - no warnings just displaying gear unavailable - all forward gears working fine - just unable to select reverse

any thoughts or ideas ?

hughesie

 

My 612 does this occasionally. I don’t yet know the reason but it always is solved by putting into first gear and then try and reverse again.

 

Best guess is that one of the various permissives needed to select reverse isn't met. For example, the car needs to see brakes on, speed zero, clutch engaged etc. before it will allow reverse to be selected. I suppose you could use live data monitoring to see what's up.

 

I had a similar problem with my 612. It didn’t happen every time and usually (but not always) when the engine and gearbox were cold. The techs at my dealer were unable to diagnose the cause but they (and I) believed it was a hydraulic issue. Over a couple of years they replaced F1 pump, accumulator, sensors, clutch, flywheel and thrust bearing, gearbox oil, battery, you name it, and each time it improved a little but it wasn’t fixed. Eventually they persuaded me that it was probably an internal gearbox problem, and when they stripped it down they found a damaged selector rod bushing and wear on other bushes. They replaced the damaged parts and also the synchronizer hubs and a bearing.
The car has been perfect ever since.
Good luck with your diagnosis.

 

Thanks all - worked fine after being left over night

Will see if its an ongoing issue.

Its done 500 miles on a new clutch so its not related to that I don't think

 

She just wanted you to know she is female and likes attention.

 

Gah, its back again !

 

You say 'just serviced' what did that include?

 

Reverse button?

 

Annual Service - Oil and inspection
Pads & Fluid - CCB F&R inc sensors etc
Uprated fluid
FR Lower ball joint & Hunter wheel Alignment

 

I don't think so, its working, just not engaging reverse it seems.

 

A lot of possibilities. Bad sensor (many can do it but if it thinks the shaft is turning it won't go into R), clutch dragging (not fully disengaged, again many causes), brake switch, .... the list is long. You need a a lot of time and/or a computer to solve this one.

 

John- Affirmative, but most of those things will also prevent her from selecting first gear. Difference is first is selected with the paddles and reverse is selected with a push button, so something to do with that unique selection mode.

 

I got the exact same problem, just curious about the cost of fixing that internal gearbox problem, sounds expensive?

 

I sold the car last year and gave the new owner all the service records, sorry I can’t remember the cost. I think it was less than $US8k for the gearbox rebuild. It is difficult to diagnose without stripping the gearbox down to inspect it. Good luck.

 

A new Actuator box sorted my issues, been fine ever since, cost around £7k

 

How many miles Justin??

 

Ross, can you remember approximately how many miles you had on the car before the rebuild?

 

56k (miles), now on 62k and like new

 

Thank you Justin, I'm always interested to hear what other cars with "high" mileage are doing. I think I'm going to bite the bullet and do the front shocks this fall, 45K+ miles.

 

I'm just midst replacing ALL of my Ball joints, Bushes, Flambloc's with Hills ones as well as braided hoses, Shocks look like they are still going strong (Famous last words) - so suspension should be good for another 5 years at least !!

 

George, about 18k miles. I have no evidence for this, but I wonder if the car was driven hard in Sports mode before the gearbox was properly warm. It’s just a theory which might explain it. When I bought the car in 2010 it had about 11k miles, but I don’t have any specific details about the history.