Scott Dorsey wrote:

> > wrote:
>>I've experienced the No Reverse issue and researched it the best I could be=
>>fore I bit the bullet for the repair. I have the GM Tranny, so I changed o=
>>ut the solenoid and they did some work on the valve body. One week later a=
>>nd the reverse is intermittent again. I'm at a crossroad because I really =
>>love this little car, but can't see investing so much in her. Has anyone d=
>>iscovered the definitive answer besides swapping out the tranny?

I still get a no reverse event once a month or so. I'm going to get a
new car but, I think, keep the 323i as a "beater". It's still usable,
making sure to back into parking spaces and stuff so you know that you
can get out.

Occasionally I've had to push it out of my garage, where, once
rolling, there's enough of a slant to get me out into the street.

Not really acceptable, as a primary car. I may be cheap, but I'm not
that poor. 8)

Out of principle, I neither want to invest the $thousands to fix it,
nor do I want to dump the problem onto someone else.

>The problem is that a lot of different things can fail to cause the same
>symptom. You have dealt with the two most common failures, but there are
>still plenty more (including the normal issues with tiny hydraulic channels
>clogging that have many different possible symptoms).
>
>Think of this as an opportunity to drop in the 5-speed Getrag that this
>car really deserves. Yes, I know it's a whole bunch of linkages that need
>to be installed and carefully tweaked but you'll never regret doing it.
>--scott

That's pretty extreme, for a car that may be nearing the end of it's
service life, may be starting to rust, etc.