Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting strange (to me) tranny problem

Ok, I have been having this problem for a while now. When I shift into second, sometimes the whole pattern moves. Neutral is where second, fourth, and reverse should be, and first, third, and fifth are where neutral should be. Second, fourth and reverse can't be reached because the shifter will not move that far back. I can remedy the problem by shoving the shifter into third gear and I can feel whatever is moving move back into the correct place. The dealership rebuilt the tranny because of a third gear grind and I mentioned this problem, but it was never fixed. I was hoping someone would recognize this problem so I could tell the dealership what needed to be fixed. My only other option seems to be to recreate the problem and deliver it to the dealership with neutral where 2nd, 4th, and reverse should be.

sorry, cant help you out...of all the tranny problems ive heard of, that is not one of them.

Sounds like the locks on the shifter cables are slipping.They are located at the tranny end on the cables just before they connect to the shift levers on the trans.Jack up the car ,remove the front left wheel and maybe the inner fender liner, look in between the steering rack and the driveshaft, you will see two cables connected to the arms.In the neutral position on the stick each arm should be in its vertical position.The 'orange' buttons on the cables have a lock which holds the inner cable in the correct position ,if these 'unlock' they will slip and not keep the levers Vs the shifter in sync.If this is the case new shifter cables may bee needed.Regards Terry Haines, HMS Inc

I had this problem, and the shifter cables did need to be replaced. Everything seemed to shift over to the left, and the only gear I could get into was third.

They supposedly have upgraded the cables to prevent this. I was out of warranty, but the dealership was cool and did the work for a $50 deductible (would have been $500!)