All signs point to transmission problem in CR-V

heart. They added a viscous coupling in the rear that activates only when the front wheels are going faster than the rear wheels (like when the front wheels are slipping on ice). So if you remove the rear drive shaft, it’ll simply never activate. So that shouldn’t affect your transmission. But 189,000 miles followed by a young, lead-footed grandson can affect a transmission.

My advice would be to go online and look at mechanicsfiles.com. That’s a database where readers and listeners of ours recommend mechanics they really like and trust. You can search it by ZIP code. You can and should look for someone who specializes in Hondas.

It could be a bad transmission control module, a bad range sensor or a stuck valve or obstruction somewhere. Someone who works on a lot of CR-Vs may have seen this problem before and may have a sense of whether it’s more likely to be something mechanical or something electronic. He may want to try a transmission-fluid flush first, just in case it’s a stuck valve, since a flush can free it up. That certainly would be the best-case scenario.

But once you get a better handle on what’s causing the problem and what it’ll cost to fix, you can decide whether you want to repair it ... or let Junior hoodwink you into kissing that gently used RAV4 goodbye. Just don’t give him a transmission warranty this time, Jess. Good luck.