on the freeway, my car blew. my brakes went on and then off, and then my car coasted to a stop. i could not get my car to accelerate at all, nor can i get it to go into any gears, including reverse. the engine seems to run fine, just that no gears work. this is why i believe that it is an electrical problem, though i am not sure. please give me assistance as to what i can do, if any. my car is a 1983 533i bmw.

matt, December 2010

Its not electrical. To have no forward or reverse then you have no input to the main input shaft ie. no pump working stripped spline broken drive plate etc. Could you have mistaken brakes for transmission failure. If the transmission is working and a nasty noise occurs going back into park then the fault is after the box ie. diff, driveshaft etc. I'm guessing the linings have delaminated causing binding like brake apply then clogged the filter equals low/no oil pressure therefore no motion.

mags, December 2010