Just bought a 1994 ls400 and the day after i was driving and the car went into neutral, not the shifter, the car was just reving up but not moving. Managed to get it to drive again to get home but now it won’t reverse and wants to go forward in park and neutral. Pls help

What you have:

P - D
R - dead
N- D

What happens in the other shifter positions?

Pull the transmission dipstick.

• What does fluid color look like?
• What does the fluid smell like? Hopefully, you have some new fluid around to compare.
• Is there fluid on the dipstick?

I'd tell you to see if the fluid is full, but this requires the transmission to be in Park. Right now, that wouldn't be very safe.

Couple things might be happening.

• The shifter cable may have lost it's adjustment. The cable or this arm might be out of adjustment:

• The fluid level is very low.
• There's a mechanical issue inside the transmission.

Is the CEL on?

Does the 1st gear do nothing and the 2nd gear works as the 3rd? If so, I worry that the solenoid S1 is not functioning.

When the solenoid S1 is failed to work and is always off, it causes No reverse as well as the Neutral/ Park works as the 4th as well as above problems. See the table below. The 4 speeds Aisin transmission for LS400s and others use solenoids to select gears as follows.

When S1 is always off, the reverse doesn't work and the Neutral forces your car to move forward slowly. In the Park position, the car wants to move forward too but the locking mechanism prevents it. You need to check the function of solenoid S1. First of all, check the resistance. If it's OK, check the actual movement and the clogging of the passage. Sometimes, the transmission speed sensor causes the same problem though.

thanks for the help man, wasn’t sure anyone would actually reply.
The trans fluid is at the correct level although the colour seems off as it looks fairly similar to the engine oil.
another thing I should mention is that it doesn’t want to rev past 2k rpm’s in any of the gears.
Check engine light is on but it was on before this happened with code 21 and 22 ( o2 sensor and coolent temp sensor) I’ll check the codes again when I get home and also try to describe of the trans fluid smells

thanks for the help, this does fit my issues very well as when I have it in neutral or the other gears it feels as if it is in a higher gear than 1st. Should I take the car for a drive to confirm if 1st and 2nd gear aren’t working?

If you confirm that the 1st and 2nd gear behave as I have posted, it will mean that the S1 is not functioning and you will need to check it electrically and mechanically. But as I also have posted, sometimes a failing speed sensor causes the problem No reverse and Neutral drives forward.

hey I’m not really sure how I’m supposed to test first and second gear could you please explain it. Some other stuff to add is that on the cluster, park, reverse and neutral light up when I go into them but drive, 3, 2, and L don’t.

Set the shift lever L and simply drive the car and compare the speed and the engine rpm.
Regarding the no light up, you need to check bulbs and the NSS for the confirmation.

We'll need more info to get an idea of what's going on with your car

I see your profile says it's a 1993. What are the current symptoms?

What is the service history like? How many miles? Any modifications?

Your issue could be anything from the ECU capacitors, to bad transmission fluid, to failed transmission solenoids, to name a few.

Do you have any check engine codes, tramission codes, etc? Start by checking all of your fuses as well