Van stopped at stopsign -- never moved again -- What happened?
By lyndaj70
@lyndaj70 (293)
United States
February 3, 2007 6:01pm CST
A friend of mine has a van that was working fine until they stopped at a stop sign. When they went to pull away, it would not move. Would not go in forward or reverse. They are selling it cheap and I am looking for possibilities as to what is wrong with it in hopes that if I repair it I will get a good vehicle at a lot better price than if I purchased one on a car lot, plus I will know for a fact that this one was taken care of. I understand that a transmission will cost around $1,500 to put in. Could it possibly be something less expensive like a modulator valve or something? Any ideas will be appreciated. Thanks!
1 person likes this
3 responses
@Aussies2007 (5336)
• Australia
11 Apr 07
It could be something as simple as the clutch if it is a manual. If it is an automatic... you probably need a new transmission.
It can also be the differential or axle... but it is rare for those two to break.
Your best bet is to pay a mechanic $100 to have a look at it and give you a quote to fix it. Most people in Australia pay a mechanic to do an inspection on any second hand car they intend to purchase... even if it don't seem to be anything wrong with it. It is money well spend if the car turns out to be faulty.
What surprise me in this... is that your friend did not bother finding out what is wrong with it. And if he did... why is he not telling you...
@lyndaj70 (293)
• United States
13 Apr 07
My friend is an older person, who simply decided that it was time for another vehicle when that one quit. They went and purchased another van within a few days of this one quitting. They were as curious as I as to what the difficulty was.
My mechanic has diagnosed the transmission as being the difficulty, and one has been purchased. Apparently the transmissions in these vans are known to fail around 100,000 miles. The purchase price of the transmission was reasonable, and I will get several years of use out of it before it will need another, and by that time I will trade it in. Thanks for your comment!
@smacksman (6053)
•
4 Feb 07
Breakers are a great source of cheap spares. In the UK there are specialist firms on the internet and will take plastic cash and deliver to your door.
With the sophistication of modern vehicles it is usual now to replace and engine or transmission without spending expensive manhours taking it to bits to find out the faulty part.
$1500 is less than 10 hours garage labour here let alone parts so it is not worth finding the problem.
The other side of the coin is to buy another van that is working fine. Why buy a problem looking for a solution?
@lyndaj70 (293)
• United States
4 Feb 07
The reason I'm looking at this van is it will cost less to repair than if I bought the same one off a lot. On a lot it will cost around $4,000 to buy the same vehicle. I can afford $1,500-$2,000 a lot easier. They may have to replace the transmission, which is fine by me, but I'm just curious if it could possibly be something else -- Can't help the curiousity, I guess. Thanks for the tip about Breakers--I'll keep that in mind.
@deebomb (15304)
• United States
4 Feb 07
Years ago I had something simular happen. My car just stopped. The engine ran fine but the car would not move. It turned out to be a busted axle. I don't know how thw axle got broken. It may have been broken when I bought the car because I hadn't had it very long when it happenend. That might be a place to start looking
