03 Wagon won't shift into reverse

Quite suddenly in the middle of a long trip I stopped being able to shift into reverse when I stopped at a service center (fortunately I was on the way home!). All other shifting is smooth. The shifter feels fine otherwise. There is no grinding or drama of any kind. I depress the shifter and push it to the left but it simply won't push up into R.

Some relevant info:

I can wrestle it into reverse occasionally with a good deal of wiggling and a bit of force, but it takes a long time, and most often it won't go.

I had a Sigma 5 Short Shifter installed when the problem arose but swapping back to the factory shifter makes no difference.

When I detach the shift cables I still cannot shift into reverse by manually manipulating the shifter linkages, so it feels like the problem is in the transmission, not the shifter/cabling.

Absolutely nothing happened to precede this. All was well until it wasn't.

Clutch (IDParts Quiet Clutch) and transmission fluid was recently done (~ 2 months ago)

Any thoughts? Car only has about 90K miles on it so it would be odd for something to be worn out inside the transmission, but who knows.

Seems I have stumped the electorate. I *think* there is something wonky going on around the gear selector tower. It doesn't feel 100% smooth when I move it up/down, and there might be something at the bottom stopping it from properly reaching it's lowest position (necessary to shift into R).

Not sure how straightforward it would be to replace the selector tower/housing.

Did you try this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sheTKD03hmo

steve6 said:

Did you try this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sheTKD03hmo

Click to expand...

Yes, but the fact that I can't get it into reverse even with the shift cables removed and manipulating the linkage manually would seem to indicate that the problem is not anywhere in the cables or parts upstream of there.

You can pull the shift selector tower out of the transmission and see if anything looks bent, but I honestly have never heard of your problem before.

And even if something was bent, it must have had some force imparted on it to become so. Like something in the transmission "broke" and wedged itself somehow. Very strange. The 02Js are pretty tough, but....

My 03 was acting similar - the grease had all dried up and this shaft was seized into the teflon bushings and was rotating where it's pressed to the side plate:


I replaced the teflon bushings, cleaned and lubed the rest and it moves freely.

The shift tower bearing was also trashed - of course mine has 306k miles, but the age is the same...

oilhammer said:

You can pull the shift selector tower out of the transmission and see if anything looks bent, but I honestly have never heard of your problem before.
And even if something was bent, it must have had some force imparted on it to become so. Like something in the transmission "broke" and wedged itself somehow. Very strange. The 02Js are pretty tough, but....

Click to expand...

Yah this is a weird one. I don't know whether or not it's a pure coincidence that the clutch/flywheel/transmission fluid was just done recently and now this odd new problem.

There was definitely no warning. I backed out of my spot with no difficulty, drove 4 hours on the highway, and then couldn't get it into reverse after stopping and parking for 15 minutes. There was definitely no progressively worse shifting or anything that would warn me this was coming. I'm just crossing my fingers a new transmission is not necessary. That would be a disaster considering the money I just spent on the clutch.

Right so here's a development. It has started working again intermittently. It seems to be better when it's cold, and the colder weather the last couple days may be helping. Without warning it will stop working again but when it is working it is perfect. No grinding, no difficulty getting into Reverse at all, it just works until it doesn't.

My theory is that there is some piece of crap at the bottom of the shift tower in the receiver that is preventing the tower from reaching it's full bottom position. When things are cold it has all contracted enough that it will still go into R anyways but once thermal expansion kicks in when things heat up it becomes difficult. So I should just be able to go in there and pull the tower/receiver and clean things out (add new fluid as well even though it was just changed) and I should be good.

The random piece of junk in the receiver hypothesis would explain the random nature of this failure and the fact that it showed absolutely no symptoms until suddenly I couldn't get into R anymore. No grinding, no clunks, nothing out of the ordinary. And the fact that nobody else ever seems to have had this problem as OH alluded to above.

For anybody who has actually been into this part of the car and knows how things operate, does this explanation seem plausible?

McGuillicuddy said:

Yah this is a weird one. I don't know whether or not it's a pure coincidence that the clutch/flywheel/transmission fluid was just done recently and now this odd new problem.

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What gear oil did you use in the trans?
It seems the wrong type can raise havoc.
Others may reply what to use and what not to use.

wonneber said:

What gear oil did you use in the trans?
It seems the wrong type can raise havoc.
Others may reply what to use and what not to use.

Click to expand...

Fuchs Sintofluid 75W. GL-4.

Can anyone advise whether any particular lube (other than gear oil) is recommended when reassembling a shifter tower?


I am in a similar predicament with a completely trashed collar/sleeve bearing in the shifter tower. I have remomoved the shifter linkages, and the tower housing to replace the sleeve/bushing, but am pondering whether I need to remove the whole shifter rod assembly

When it comes to lubing plastic/metal interfaces, I'm partial to "dry Teflon lube" as used in bicycles.

Update: my problem *appears* to have been fixed by a replacement (used) shift tower. I can't say exactly what was wrong with the old one other than it showed a good deal of corrosion around the bearing and in the upper portion of the unit that sits under the outer housing. The replacement has no rust there and so far is working great. Fingers crossed that I have avoided having to replace a transmission!

Glad you got it fixed and posted the solution.
May help others down the line as our cars are getting older.

Agreed, thanks for following up.

No problem. I've been victimized more than once reading a thread that I thought was going to solve a problem I was having only to find the conclusion missing!

Reverse still working so I am going to go ahead and declare victory .

I experienced almost exactly the same failure.... shifting very stiff and unpredictably stubborn.


Inspection suggested that the "ballsleeve" bushing in the shifter tower had way too much slop. Removed the tower to find that the tiny ball bearings in the 'ballsleeve" were all gone, and the bearing/sleeve had pretty much disintegrated.


Although I sourced a replacement "ballsleeve", I was unable to remove the remainig bts of the original bushing in a timely manner. Was fortunate to have access to a spare gearbox, and just swapped the used shifter tower from the donor gearbox.


That seems to have resolved the issue. Not perfect shifting, but much improved!


When time and motivation permits, I will work on removing the failed bushing from the original tower and rebuild it with new bits.