Dies when put in gear.

[gdawgs]

A buddy of my dad's just bought a Festiva. It's a 93' with an auto. When he puts it in gear, the engine dies. The weird thing is that he can put it in reverse and drive around and it works just fine. He said he can get it to go forward by revving it up pretty high, then putting it into 1st gear(not too good for tranny). If I understood him correctly, he can then get going, and if he gets it up to 25 mph or so he can put it in 2nd without it dieing.

Any suggestions?? I have not seen or driven the car, so these are all the details that I have at this point. I have never owned(or even driven) a Festiva with an auto trans, so I don't know much about them. But it seems really strange that reverse works fine but not the forward gears.

Thanks.

[FestYboy]

too much pump pressure? or possibly 2 clutches engauging (sp) at the same time?

it is odd that nutral dropping allows normal opperation... i'll see what the manual says.

ok, looked and theres nothing relating to your symptoms in the manual. i suggest talking to FB71.

[jglutz]

Park neutral switch malfuntion under the shifter ehicj allows the ECU to pick up reverse but not drive or lower gears....just a guess

[FestYboy]

ECU doesn't even see the trans or what it's doing. PRNDL switch may be part of the problem, but i think this is gonna be mechanical and not electrical.