Beretta.net

I just got my beretta back today and I go to put it in reverse and I felt it very lightly engage (could barely tell), but then it acts like its in neutral, no movement at all. Think reverse is gone in the tranny or slipping? Also the car seems to "studder" or runs kind of bad or rough every now and then, I was thinking maybe just needs a tune up? Also j/w but, did these cars come with heat shields for the starter? cause my starter won't work after a run, but perfectly fine after cool down, i'm pretty sure its a heat prob. Thanks for any help guys

sry, just noticed that this should be in diagnostic, it was late when I wrote it so, sry again.

Is it an auto? Try putting it in neutral or park. Then rev and hold it at 1.5-2k rpm's to get the engine warmed up. Once the engine is closer to running temp, try putting it in reverse and see if it engages. If so then you need a $6 bottle of GM transmision seal conditioner form the dealer. About 800 miles of driving after that and it will have worked it's magic and the problem should go away.

If it doesn't engage when the car is warm, then reverse clutches/etc are going out.

Motor running rough could be any things, a tune up and inspection of things will help!

I don't think they have heat shields for the starter, I think it's got insulation around the wires but I didn't see a metal sheild on mine. You probably need a new starter. You could snag one from a junkyard for cheap if you don't care about crawling under a car and getting it. One from a newer 3100/3400 (2000+) is a lot smaller and lighter than your old 3.1mpfi one and will work fine. I think you have to drill out the wire tab that bolts to it on your stock harness as one of the wiring bolts or soemthing is larger but that's trivial.

Hope this helps!

thanks! yes, it is an auto. My friend grabbed me some tranny stuff today, something called trans x or something, it's supposed to stop slipping and leaks, but it says to add the whole bottle and the trans fluid level is already up to the mark, so I didn't wanna over fill it. The only thing the previous owner did major to it was take out the 2.8 and put in a 3.1. As for the starter, ya, i'll probably buy a new one just so I know that it's fine. thanks for the info!

you may just need a trany flush? its the fluid nice and pretty red?  If not... time for a flush just be careful if you have over 100k miles it make actually cause premature failure


and just so you know... if you need to take out some trany fluid, disconnect the line on the radiator and turn the car over just a few seconds to pump some fluid out... then you can add you trany fixer upper fluid and the level should be nice... also... when was the last time the pan was dropped and the trany filter replaced?  did you check the modulator?  what about the vac lines?  is the intake gasket leaking?  any of these can cause the trany to not perform correctly

Well, I checked the fluid the other night and it was above it's mark, not completely sure on it's color because it was getting dark (i'll check again sometime). The car has 164,6XX, but the previous owner said he had the motor swapped, it's a 3.1 now (supposedly rebuilt, but not sure how true) so I don't know what he did about the tranny. The only thing that I know leaks right now is the power steering. If the tranny stuff doesn't help, i'll start checking the other stuff you told me about. The previous owner doesn't seem to know much of anything about how to take care of the car (so I doubt it's ever had a tranny flush etc.), but i'm hoping to get the car back to a better condition. Thanks for the info and any more help would be great.

use the gm stuff, dont use that other crap.

If your tranny has never been flushed, no place is going to flush it, due to the fact that it could cause more problems, as pointed out by Decipha. If it doesn't look pretty, just drop the pan and change the filter. If you don't know if it's ever been done, and there is a good chance that it hasn't been, it's one of those "forgotten filters," that would be your best bet. Just remember that by doing that you're only loosing about half of the old stuff, so don't overfill it.

so you think an unchanged filter could possibly be my problem? or would it need the whole flush? if it is, do you guys recommend a certain filter brand? The car is at a friends due to the fact that it's not on the road yet, but i'll get over there sometime and check the color, thanks.

Put the GM conditioner in there. You can try dropping the pan and replacing the filter/some fluid. Be sure to clean the bolts well and use blue (medium) threadlocker when re-installing them, and torq to specs don't over torque as it will strip the aluminum.

I think the GM stuff will help more than anything, but dropping the pan should help with any sludge if that's impairing the trans.