My Ford Transit 2012 with 85k miles out of nowhere would not reverse! It was crazy because I was driving on an incline through hills at about a 4k elevation and about four times the engine seemed to buckle under the stress of the hills.

I drive these hills periodically (14 highway in Lancaster, California) and when I got home about 45 minutes later my Transit Connect would not go into reverse. I checked the transmission fluid to see if it was high or low, but really couldn't tell because I didn't know how to read the dip stick (tip: instructions are on dip stick)

Watched a few YouTube videos and followed a few instructions:

1. Is the transmission fluid brown, pink, black what? light brown

2. Have I ever had the transmission changed or flushed? no

3. Does vehicle need transmission fluid? hmm don't think so dip stick was tricky

4. Is it the reverse band or solenoid? my mechanic quickly said replace entire transmission

5. Did you do a code check? I went to Autozone for a free code check and no sign of transmission failure

6. Did you check fuses and brake lights? all looks good

These were the typical questions.

I got a quote from my mechanic of $2,500 basically. I didn't even get mad. I said I'll drive it until it dies since I could drive forward.

I knew I had taken the transmission reading when the car was at a slight angle so I knew I needed to do it again and this I knew to look for the color of the fluid which was light brown so I knew it needed to be changed.

One of the videos suggested placing the vehicle in each gear from park to drive to reverse to neutral to L1 and L2 etc.

When I went through each gear it must of reset something because now the reverse gear works! I'm happy and will promptly go get the transmission fluid changed according to the manual and will not take my transmission for granted again.

If you know your transmission shouldn't be dead, maybe it isn't. Do some research but key it to change it when the manual says so!

I wondered if I had taken to the vehicle to my mechanic and he found that all it needed was a change of fluid would he have lied? Hmmm yep!