Help! My car won't go into reverse (just moves forward)...

[gat89]

Tonight I went to go eat dinner and parked on the side of the street. When I came back, I put the car into reverse, turned my head over my shoulder, and expected the car to start inching backwards. Instead it slowly moved forward. Thinking I was crazy, I stopped the car, turned off the engine, and tried again. Same thing!

I repeated this process this process several times and everytime it went forward. I wasn't parked on a hill, I know I was in reverse because each time my backup camera came on, and my friend was in the passenger seat to sanity check.

Has this happened to anyone? In the end I put the car in neutral, had 3 strangers walking down the street help me push the car back, and drove off. When I came home, I tested the car and the problem seems to have gone away.

Any ideas? Thanks!

 

[JoulesThief]

Any time something like this happens, especially with computer driven stuff, stop, pull out your cell phone, and video tape the event of it malfunctioning. Take the car in for service and show them the video of the car put in reverse and pulling forward. Always document when your car isn't behaving correctly. These cars are computer controlled now.

This is a good example of why I don't want autonomous driving in cars... Ever... You could get killed, your car could kill someone else. The system is always hackable by someone.

 

[johnnylingo]

Did you have a couple glasses of wine with that dinner? :lol:

Seriously, nobody has reporting anything like this before. Definitely get it on video if it occurs again.

 

[SDegolf]

This happens if you do not firmly hold down the brake when you hit the start button. If you hit the start button without firmly hitting the brake, you can move the gear into reverse and the car can roll forward. This happened to me in a Passat I was loaned. For some reason the brake pedal was not responding well and my car inched forward when I put it in reverse.

 

[JoulesThief]

This happens if you do not firmly hold down the brake when you hit the start button. If you hit the start button without firmly hitting the brake, you can move the gear into reverse and the car can roll forward. This happened to me in a Passat I was loaned. For some reason the brake pedal was not responding well and my car inched forward when I put it in reverse.

You don't press down the brake pedal when you hit the start button. You press and hold the brake pedal down firmly, BEFORE you press the start button. Operator error.

 

[gat89]

Thanks everyone for the comments. So a few things:

1) I am positive the car was in "Ready" mode, as in the engine was on -- I made sure of it. When I first got the car 2 weeks ago there were a couple times in the beginning where I forgot to push down on the brakes BEFORE hitting the Start button. I quickly stopped doing that.

2) I tried to put the car in Neutral to see if I was on some sort of weird incline. I was also secretly hoping that the road wasn't level and that an incline could actually roll the car backwards because I couldn't go backwards with my reverse gear. Unfortunately though when I put the car in Neutral, the road was so flat it did not roll backwards or forwards.

3) When I pushed down on the gas pedal, while in reverse, I could actually feel the engine pushing me forward. It wasn't as if I just took my foot off the brakes and the car was inching forward.

Unfortunately I was so bewildered that I didn't take any videos. It also hasn't happened again today even though I have tried countless times to reproduce the problem. Finally the fact that no one else has had this problem though really blows my mind, maybe I am patient 0!

 

[NeilBlanchard]

Ahem - in an electric car, there is no gas pedal, and there is no engine.

If this happens repeatedly, then demonstrate it for the dealer. How did you get home?

 

[80nick]

You are not alone... same thing has happened to me a couple of times. 1700 miles on the clock. No rhyme or reason for when it happens. It is worrisome though. If you take your car to the dealer before I take mine, please report back with what they say. I'll do the same.
N

 

[gat89]

Neil -- I put the car into Neutral and literally had to find 3 guys on the street to help me push the car backwards.

80nick -- I am SO happy this has happened to someone else. I was so worried I was going crazy. So I can't reproduce the problem but I am bringing it into the dealer tomorrow so at least I have a record. Also if you ever talk to someone else who has had this problem, please let me know!

 

[gat89]

Neil, also I am curious, what did you do when your car couldn't go into reverse?

 

[80nick]

I'm Nick, that's Neil... I assume you are asking me. Luckily it has happened in a places where I didn't have to freak out! Foot on brake, turn car off, turn back on, put in reverse, repeat until it goes into reverse. I think the couple of times it has happened I can hear the rear camera opening, and I have what the camera sees on the screen, all systems seem like a go, but no reverse.

 

[NeilBlanchard]

It has worked fine for us for about a year and a half and >22,000 miles.

 

[judah8750]

This just happened to my wife, except it would only go in reverse even after shifting to park and then drive several times. She had to turn off the car open and close the door and then restart to get it to act normal. Pretty sketchy. Anyone find out more about the reason? Of course I will take video if it happens to me and I told my wife for next time.

 

[JoulesThief]

This just happened to my wife, except it would only go in reverse even after shifting to park and then drive several times. She had to turn off the car open and close the door and then restart to get it to act normal. Pretty sketchy. Anyone find out more about the reason? Of course I will take video if it happens to me and I told my wife for next time.

It takes 5 to 7 seconds for the whole car to "boot up", which it should be allowed to do completely. I make a habit of stepping on the brake pedal, pushing the start stop button, then taking my time to attach the seat belt and adjust it, then I adjust the volume on the infotainment center, check all my mirrors, then move the gear selector into R or D. Rushing the car while it boots up and before it's complete can cause the wonky shifting. It needs to fully complete booting up before you put it in gear.

 

[judah8750]

Classic. Well I'm having the shop fix the back up cam problem and the 72 auto climate problem. Feels kind of like running beta software. I'll have to say though, I absolutely love my e-golf. Today I finally just got my 2015 TDI Sportwagen back from the shop after being rear-ended a month ago and man do I love that thing too. I am going to really miss that car. Though, having the e-golf even just for two weeks has convinced me that I can run all electric so the model 3 should ease the pain of saying bye to my TDI. I was hating on VW for the dieselgate scam for a while but now I'm getting all my money back, I can drive it for free until December 2018 and they felt bad at the dealer and gave me a smoking deal (I think) on the e-golf. So I'm back singing VW's praises. All said and done after all the rebates and goodwill package and e-golf deal I'll have driven the TDI for 3.5 years, and the e-golf for 3 years for a combined total of $158 a month! Someone pinch me.

 

[Farallon5]

My wife told me this happened to her the other day. It's never happened to me, so I basically didn't believe her due to her unfamiliarity with the car and her general tech phobia. Now I see that she was right! Whatta gal!

I too would love to hear any resolution from VW. Possibly a future recall?

2016 SE 850 miles

 

[JoulesThief]

My wife told me this happened to her the other day. It's never happened to me, so I basically didn't believe her due to her unfamiliarity with the car and her general tech phobia. Now I see that she was right! Whatta gal!

I too would love to hear any resolution from VW. Possibly a future recall?

2016 SE 850 miles

Don't rush the booting up process. Take 10 seconds from when the left needle goes straight up and the green "Ready" light comes on before you engage the car in gear. It's an operator problem. The whole system software need the time to fully boot up.

 

[Deschodt]

It takes 5 to 7 seconds for the whole car to "boot up", which it should be allowed to do completely. [...]Rushing the car while it boots up and before it's complete can cause the wonky shifting.

Good to hear: this happened to me once as well and I thought I hallucinated it, except for the scratch on the garage door... I park on a slope near the garage door... I can't swear I did not fudge the brake/ON sequence by going too fast, but the car DID let me put it in reverse and would only go forward. It did that 3 times, and eventually I ran out of room and kissed the garage door with the front licence plate holder...which stopped the car... I killed it, got out to make sure there was no damage, got back in, cycled power on and this time all was well...

*IF* it was me messing up the brake/ON and the car lets you put it in reverse without power being on, that's a pretty glaring bug /stupid feature on VW's part... That would be like being able to pull a gasoline car out of PARK without the engine running. You shouldn't be able to...

 

[JoulesThief]

It takes 5 to 7 seconds for the whole car to "boot up", which it should be allowed to do completely. [...]Rushing the car while it boots up and before it's complete can cause the wonky shifting.

Good to hear: this happened to me once as well and I thought I hallucinated it, except for the scratch on the garage door... I park on a slope near the garage door... I can't swear I did not fudge the brake/ON sequence by going too fast, but the car DID let me put it in reverse and would only go forward. It did that 3 times, and eventually I ran out of room and kissed the garage door with the front licence plate holder...which stopped the car... I killed it, got out to make sure there was no damage, got back in, cycled power on and this time all was well...

*IF* it was me messing up the brake/ON and the car lets you put it in reverse without power being on, that's a pretty glaring bug /stupid feature on VW's part... That would be like being able to pull a gasoline car out of PARK without the engine running. You shouldn't be able to...

I could pull my 6 speed manual Passat TDI out of Park on the handbrake/parking brake with or without the engine running, or the ignition on. Maybe turn the parking brake off last, after you put it in gear, with your foot on the brake pedal hard. That's normal operating procedure for me, regardless of which car I am in.

There's a lot of computerized booting up stuff going on on these newer technology cars. I find that if I turn the car on, then go to fasten my seat belt, then check all the gauges on the dash to be sure nothing unusual is lit up, that the system has plenty of time to boot up, and then put in gear and turn off the electronic hand brake. Establish a routine that works best for you, so time isn't wasted booting up, you are doing something productive with it.

The infotainment center will tell you when everything is pretty much up and running.

 

[Deschodt]

happened again today, so on average I do this once a month ;-) I'm pretty sure the above is correct, it's "too quick a boot sequence"... I sit down while jamming the brakes and pressing the start button... like every day where it works fine, except maybe I was a tad too quick...

Same deal: car is definitely on, but no drive... Yet you can put it in gear (any gear) and roll down a hill or into a garage door...

VW should probably write some code to prevent gear change before the car *truly* is on... But yes, it only happens when the car is rushed... It's not a failure, possibly a bug, but taking a few more seconds prevents it from happening.