The original post: /r/askcarguys by /u/OhNoElevatorFelled on 2024-04-30 01:25:14.

Alright, so I’m confused as fuck. My manager gave me a car (2007 Mercury Mariner) that she didn’t want anymore that had a broken transmission. It was working fine, then got all fucky and drove weird and she drove it home. Never got it checked out.

Then she gives it to me, I take it to AAMCO, and they say that it’s been locked in third gear as a safety feature because one of the other gears is probably broken, but they really have no idea until they open it up. Their quotes are extreme, and I try to find craigslist guys to fix it. I found a guy that would put one in for a total of ~1500 using a junkyard transmission. But I decided against gambling with a mystery transmission, and was going to junk the thing for $650.

But then I figured fuck it, let me see if I can drive this thing while in third gear and if it’ll get me to and from work for at least a little while so I can save money on transport. And while I was test driving it, it ran fine? It changed gears totally normally, I only went to about 40 miles an hour max so that it didn’t go into fourth gear.

What’s up with this thing? It’s clearly not stuck in third gear any more. I switched batteries, so I’m thinking that maybe reset the computer and took the locked into third gear off? I checked the transmission fluid and it was a quart low, so I added a quart into it.

Is there any chance that this problem with the transmission was caused by the low fluid or some other minor issue that has since been resolved? I’m planning on taking backroads into work and not pushing it past 35 miles an hour, but eventually I do want to test the other gears.

Any advice? I’m a car dipshit. Thanks!