so my wife was running errands today and she was sitting a stop light waiting for the light to turn green, once it did she went to accelerate and her car started to roll backwards, as if she was in neutral. she put the car in park, turned it off and then back on and tried again and with no luck it continued to be in "neutral" she put the car in park, and realized that her car would still roll backwards downhill unless she has her parking brake on. every time that I put the car in drive from park there is no noise, but once i go to put the car into park from drive there is a weird grinding sound almost similar to flicking a spring style door stopper. no matter what ive done the car remains in this weird "neutral" gear, even though on the dash it will display what the gear shift corresponds to. so i am at a loss. hoping that its not a total transmission failure


2007 s40 Automatic transmission

i have taken a video of the car and the sound when changing from drive to park.


attachment manager said invalid URL type, so i posted it above.

 

Look for a CV axle that's broken or that has slipped out of the transmission. That's the sound of a "moving" transmission being thrown into park. Just one loose axle will stop you dead as the proverbial doornail.

 

even though when its in park it still acts like its in neutral ?

 

Yes - with a broken / out of socket axle, the transmission will spin that side just like the car is moving (causing the noise when you shift into Park - just like if you did it with the car still moving).

There is also a possibility that something internal to the tranny cut loose, causing the same symptom. But if you're lucky, it's only a bad CV axle or an axle that's slipped out of the transmission.