VT commodore wont change into fourth gear

mcholden1, Feb 5, 3:32am
my commodore wont change in to 4th/ overdrive have been told its the solenoid if so how hard is it to fix and how much will it cost cheers

tonyrockyhorror, Feb 5, 3:39am
Surely the person that told you what the problem was would have had a good idea of the cost too.

skin1235, Feb 5, 3:59am
does the speedo still work!

crazy I know but mitsi pajero's auto ( and I've heard manuals too) would lock out top gear if you managed to rip the wires off the side of the gearbox ( the speedo loom had a sensor that would not activate the solenoid to open the gate or in the auto the valve chest tunnel

skin1235, Feb 5, 3:59am
does the speedo still work!

crazy I know but mitsi pajero's auto ( and I've heard manuals too) would lock out top gear if you managed to rip the wires off the side of the gearbox ( the speedo loom had a sensor that would not activate the solenoid to open the gate or in the auto the valve chest tunnel if it wasn't receiving a signal

tuttyclan, Feb 5, 4:03am
I would assume that this may apply to a VT Commodore but I know that on Ford Telstars of 1994 vintage the thermostat can stick causing the cooling system to not work properly and this can cause the car to 'run cold' which may explain why overdrive is not working.On some cars the overdrive wont work until the car is warmed up from cold but if the thermstat is sticking then you may have problems with the overdrive.Check and replace if the thermostat is faulty.This can be checked by taking out the thermostat and putting it into a bowl of boiling water to see if the thermostat opens.

mcholden1, Feb 5, 5:01am
they said to take to a auto specialist but thats what they thought and i had already assumed it was the solenoid just wanted anotheropinion and yes the speedo still works fine . also have replaced the coolent and thermostat at the end of last year

electro2000, Feb 5, 5:52am
I replaced the vcc solinode in my vs v8 couple years ago cost me 60$
Plus trans fluid did it my self.
Note the person who told you should have told you also if it is a solinode
Fault there will be a fault code stored in the pcm for vcc fault.
From memery the cel or powerlight flashed couple times after engine started when a code was stored

mcholden1, Feb 6, 6:10am
my commodore came up with the following fault codes 13 23 29 59 63 92 96 and they arnt for the solenoids but one of the codes is for the gearbox