The other night I was driving home when the 2001 Eclipse (auto transmission) acted as if I had bumped it into neutral. There was no rubbing or popping noise, no noise of any kind to suggest something had broken. The car had been shifting perfecting, both in auto and with the shiftronic system.

Now it cranks perfectly, but acts as if it won't go into gear. I have called five different mechanics and gotten five different suggestions. One even said the whole transmission needed to be replaced, even though he had never even seen the car.

My thinking is when the transmission goes, there is some warning beforehand. This happened out of the blue without any sort of noise or reaction. I'd bet it's something in the ECU or some electrical failure somewhere (wouldn't be the first time I've had wire problems with this car -- crankshaft position sensor anyone?)

Any ideas?

 

My guess is also TCU (transmission control unit) related. Or a sensor in the system. Alot of times if a car senses a problem it will jump into "Limp mode" which will cause it to stay in one gear, until the problem is fixed. Sorta a precautionary built in measure. I doubt its the tranny

 

I just got off the phone with a local mechanic. I asked him about the possiblity of it being the transmission control module, and he said it can't be that. He said the transmission shifts into first and reverse manually, not by computer. The computer does the shifting in the higher gears.

He named over two parts in the transmission and said it's likely one of those two parts has broken, which is why the car won't shift into even first gear.

If anyone on here can tell me otherwise, I would appreciate it.