It's a chilly day today but this hasn't happened before. Today while on a flat clean surface I shifted into reverse fully, let my foot off the brake and gave it some gas, maybe 2mph. Tires spun a bit and Traction On came on the dash. Shifted into D and drove a few feet, stopped, shifted into Reverse again and this time it didn't come on. So I drove home and while parking I shifted into Reverse again, tires spun a little and Traction came back on. It's not consistent, but this has never happened before.

Is my tranny going out already? Everything else shifts smoothly, I don't rough shift ever. 88k miles mostly highway. I know our trannies suck, but I really hope this isn't happening already...

 

if a wheel starts to slip, traction control kicks on and tries to slow that wheel down.

Or a wheel speed sensor could be starting to go / the connector is dirty.

 

I know what traction control does, but there was no logical reason for it to turn on at that point. At all. Could be the sensor, as I've had similar problems with traction lights before, but I am paranoid about my transmission, and this hasn't happened before. How do I go about cleaning/replacing the sensor?

 

Im just curious:

Why in the world would you be hammering your ride in reverse in the first place???
Lets not forget....
If your looking to blowup your trans...thats one sure way to get it done!!!!

Im guessing your doing reverse drive slams!....(to burn rubber)

Just a little FYI....
If you continue to do this....You may just end up sucking air instead of oil and blow your motor! as all the oil rushes to the opposite side of the oil pan! and the oil pickup has nothing to pick up!


I would Recommend...

Not doing those reverse drive slams!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Try again... I stated that I do NOT rough shift. I do not slam it into gear and put pedal to metal. It's a weak automatic tranny for goodness sake lol. I said I keep my foot on the brake until it shifts fully then slowly give it some gas with revs at less than 1k to start. In Reverse especially, I try not to give it gas, and just let it roll itself back unless I have to help it out. I have been very gentle on the car since the day I've owned it.

When I said the tires spun, I should have said slipped. The car jerked slightly when I gave it a tiny bit of gas, under 1k rpms. It was literally less than 5mph. The speed it rolls backwards on its own almost without gas at all. Simply shifting into reverse and letting the brake off turned on traction. That's why I am concerned.


Would regular parking on a slight incline/decline (nothing too severe) without the parking brake have anything to do with it? My parking brake is out of commission at the moment.

 

I wouldn't assume the transmission.

You can't replace the sensors, they are built into the wheel hub assembly.

 

Like I said, I am paranoid about every creak and thump in the car lol. How to diagnose which WSS is the culprit?

 

Keep driving it until it fails enough to throw an ABS code.

Although the only wheel that gets power is the front passenger and typically a common one to go

 

It's thrown ABS codes before. Randomly for the past year. Guess it wouldn't hurt to replace both hubs. Thanks.

 

Had the same problem going on, finally the light stayed on and it was a code for the passenger side hub assembly. Replaced it and even now it comes off and on intermittently. Next I'll be going through the wheel well wiring and sensors! The wheel hub really wasn't too bad to replace at all and my sensor was completely shot (Had about a 1/2 inch thick chunk out of the cable.) anyways, hope that helps.