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

[JoulesThief]

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.

You only roll when you take your foot off the brakes. Operator error. Leave your foot on the brakes while it's booting up. Stare at your infotainment center until the infotainment center appears to be normal and functioning as you last left it when you shut down. When the infotainment center appears normal and fully booted up, then disengage the parking brake with foot still on the brake pedal and then engage the car in any gear you want. Slow down. You're driving computer driven car, the computer needs to boot up fully before you disengate parking brakes or engage the transmission in gear.

The car doesn't adapt to you, you adapt to the car. Get used to using the proper procedure. Don't blame the car for your impatience.

 

[forbin404]

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.

You know, now that you describe it this way, I've had this happen to me too.

Start Car, put in gear, but if you do it too fast, the car is still 'off' (looks on but it's off and the EPC? light is on and the radio and A/C are engaged) but it's in Neutral. Car is in D now and you have to put it in 'N' to restart.

 

[tony98765]

We have had a new 2018 eGolf for a few weeks and my wife experienced the going forward in reverse problem today. She was on a flat level surface. After it happened the first time she went into park and back into reverse but the car was still powered forward. If it is due to trying to drive away too quickly after starting up surely it should not persist after park is selected and then another gear. Bad programming if the car is allowed to move before the software is ready. Potentially life threatening. Shame it still afflicts the 2018 model.

 

[JoulesThief]

We have had a new 2018 eGolf for a few weeks and my wife experienced the going forward in reverse problem today. She was on a flat level surface. After it happened the first time she went into park and back into reverse but the car was still powered forward. If it is due to trying to drive away too quickly after starting up surely it should not persist after park is selected and then another gear. Bad programming if the car is allowed to move before the software is ready. Potentially life threatening. Shame it still afflicts the 2018 model.

Read your owners manual for the proper procedure before operating your new to you e-Golf. You'll save yourself some potential embarrassment. Have the wife read it and understand it, too.

 

[ekosheren]

My wife picked up her new e-Golf yesterday and she also witnessed this going forward when gear selector is in reverse. The car would have been fully booted as she was driving forward for a bit, but when selecting reverse the rear camera engaged, audible beep to acknowledge rear sensors are on, but car moved forward when pressing the accelerator pedal, narrowly missing an on-coming car.

She had to turn off the ignition and restart to get it into reverse properly.

This is probably a software issue, but a rather dangerous one. I guess it seems rare enough, with just a handful of posts here, but since the earlier posts are from a few years ago and we have the 2019 model, seems like there is still some sort of long-term but rare glitch.

 

[Ihopethisworks]

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.

You do not want that. If a car could not get out of park without the engine on, then you would be screwed. In the event that a car wont start, you would never get it to a shop. When a car is towed, the vehicle is taken out of gear so that it can be pulled, via cable, onto a tow truck lol. Without this, the tow driver would have to disconnect/loosen the linkage to the transmission.

Any automatic transmission gasoline vehicle can be taken out of gear by simply turning on the ACC power > pressing the brake > moving the shifter to nuetral. Example: when I back my jeep into the garage, I always push it out of the garage before I start it so that I am not filling the garage with exhaust fumes. We use the garage daily and for extended periods, and I do not want anyone (including pets) to breath them in. Maybe I just like the mantastic feeling of pushing my car around without asking for help =)

Manual transmission is even easier. Press in clutch pedal > move shifter out of gear.

Both require the ebrake to be off. Both also lose power steering because the pulleys on the front of the engine are not spinning, thereby failing to create the pressure needed for the power steering pump to operate. You can still steer but it takes much more effort, the same way all vehicles used to be before power steering was invented.

 

[ELECTROMAN]

I just bought a new eGolf three days ago. It also did something strange the second day. I wasn't sure if it was user error or not. I turned it on and shifted into reverse. It started backing up, but the steering wheel power wasn't on yet. I turned it off and back on a couple of times and it started working properly. I'm assuming it's some kind of booting up issue and that I will make sure the power steering is on before shifting into R or D.

My daughter also called this morning and said the car was on but it wouldn't move. She turned it off and then back on and it started working normally again. This was after sitting in the garage charging all night.

 

[manybees]

My daughter also called this morning and said the car was on but it wouldn't move. She turned it off and then back on and it started working normally again. This was after sitting in the garage charging all night.

Make sure that she is pressing the brake pedal already when she presses the On button to turn on the car and that the "Ready" indicator shows on the instrument panel before she puts it into gear. I've experienced a couple of times where I pressed the On button too quickly before pressing the brake pedal, and I assumed the car was ready, but it wasn't. The instrument panel looked like it was on, but the Ready indicator wasn't on. I just turned it off, put my foot on the brake, and then pressed the button, and that fixed it.

If the car indicates that it's "Ready" and it still won't move when put in gear, then you should take it in to have it looked at by a dealer.

 

[f1geek]

Exactly. I have forgotten to press the brake pedal occasionally and instead of the green Ready indicator on the dash, I see a yellow EPC indicator on the %PWR gauge face and the needle will also be pointing to “Off”. When you press the brake and then the start button, the needle will point up to 0.

 

[ELECTROMAN]

Exactly. I have forgotten to press the brake pedal occasionally and instead of the green Ready indicator on the dash, I see a yellow EPC indicator on the %PWR gauge face and the needle will also be pointing to “Off”. When you press the brake and then the start button, the needle will point up to 0.

And when it's in that not fully on state you can still shift into D or R? Yeah I'm thinking that's what happened. I just went and looked at the parking garage I was parked in and it is sloped enough to roll back slowly. I was thinking it was level, but I put the car I drove today in neutral and it started to roll. So yeah 99% most likely user error. I've been reading the manual, but not about the most basic things like how to shift into gear. Still can't figure out what regen level I'm in. I have the SE with the analog gauges. Love this car so far. With the tax credits and rebate, was deal of the century.

 

[manybees]

Exactly. I have forgotten to press the brake pedal occasionally and instead of the green Ready indicator on the dash, I see a yellow EPC indicator on the %PWR gauge face and the needle will also be pointing to “Off”. When you press the brake and then the start button, the needle will point up to 0.

On the Digital Dashboard on my SEL, the word "Ready" actually appears in green in the lower left of the "cluster" area.

 

[Sparklebeard]

EPS

From what I understand, the real purpose of this indicator light is not to indicate a power steering system failure, but instead to elicit a response of "WHY ISN'T THE CAR WORKI... oh I need to press the brake..." :mrgreen: :lol:

I don't notice the READY light so easily, but I have got used to noticing the EPS light to tell me that it's user error!


Edited: because I accidentally wrote EPC, as if Electronic Power Cheering were a feature of the vehicle....

 

[f1geek]

Just forgot to press the brake pedal today. Got “EPC” light (not EPS), as before.

 

[sarsonj]

Happened to my wife today. 2007 e-golf. I called dealer and they told me, that there is no such problem reported in VW problems system. Does anybody has other reply from dealer?

Jindrich

 

[f1geek]

I looked over this thread and saw so many times the phrase "this happened to my wife...". Seems to be happening mostly to women. I wonder why? Did your wife see the EPC indicator on the dashboard or the Ready indicator? Can YOU reproduce this? Can you watch what your wife does to have this problem?

 

[keuller]

Seems to be happening mostly to women. I wonder why?

Husband with a penis here, I have had the reverse-results-in-forward-movement issue occur twice after periods of driving, NOT immediately after startup.

The first was at a light when the car in front of me started to backup to make room for a turning semi. I shifted into reverse but when applying pressure to the accelerator pedal the car began to inch forward instead of backwards. I immediately stopped, shifted to neutral, then shifted back into reverse and the car reversed as expected.

Today was the second time when I was in line to drop my kid off at school. I put the car in park but did not power off while she hopped out. The car in front of me was taking their time with no other cars around so I shifted into reverse to back up and go around. Everything seemed right, back up camera turned on, car beeped, I look behind and slow apply pressure to the accelerator and the car moved forward (flat ground) under power, not rolling, definitely matched the power I was applying.

I stopped this time and DID NOT shift or power off the car. Instead I waited until the car ahead of me left to experiment. I sat with my foot on the brake pedal until they left. Then slowly accelerated and the car continued forward while the reverse gear was physically selected and the dash indicator showed I was in reverse. I stopped but did not shift then I tried accelerating very quickly and the car proceeded forward still.

At this point I stopped, shifted into park, turned off the power, exited the vehicle to talk to the principle (since I was clearly doing something strange in the drop off zone). After entering my vehicle and powering up, everything behaved as normal when I tested reverse again and I went on my way.


The greatest lesson I learned from this thread today is to take a video. I'm going to do that next time.

 

[f1geek]

Great to hear (it seems) the e-Gilf does not malfunction based on the driver’s gender!

Clearly this is a software or hardware (switch) issue that needs to corrected ASAP. Best of luck!

 

[jfcole]

Just to add to this, my wife also reported this at the end of a drive. She pulled up to a friends house, then selected reverse to reverse into the driveway and the car moved forward - on a flat road. Happened again and was now holding up traffic. She had to lock and unlock the car and then it engaged reverse.

This is a 2019 E Golf in Ireland.