Transmission will not engage a gear on the 2010 Chevrolet Equinox
Only 6 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When transmission will not engage a gear gets reported
There are 10 reports of transmission will not engage a gear on the 2010 Chevrolet Equinox, 6 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 22nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 83,800 miles | — | — |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Putting it right typically runs $1,500–$6,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure, every year of the Chevrolet Equinox
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
11/13/13 first report of transmission surging/bucking when coming to stop then engine dies, happened twice. Dealer could not duplicate. 12/21/13 transmission failure: no reverse, won't shift past 2nd, trans fluid ok but dark w/ metal shavings. Found 3,5,r wave plate fibers & steels damaged along w/ clutch housing assembly, low reverse spring retainer & housing. 1,2,3,4,piston, low reverse 1,2,3,4 clutch, low reverse piston. Clean case, rebuilt valve body, replaced seals, installed overhaul kit. 2/24/14: reported transmission problem recurred, dealer drove for 2 weeks could not duplicate. 3/24/14: reported transmission problem recurred 7 times on 3/23. Dealer able to duplicate problem. Replace sungear, output carrier gear set, wave plates, overhauled transmission, relearn shift adapt. *tr
On the way to work in my 2010 chevrolet equinox, on a friday morning, pulling out to the highway my car did not want to shift and the check engine light came on. Then it would not go into drive or reverse. After it was turned off and sat for a wile it went into gear. I then went by a local auto store and they read the code as p0717 and p0700 that had to do with the transmission. I would have to contact the dealer for further info. Got back to work and called the dealer and was told they could not see me until late monday or tuesday. So all weekend I drove it, light was no longer on, thought everything was okay. Forward monday afterwork, at stop sign and started to pull out and the car would not go into gear. No reverse either, coasted down the hill to side street and turned off the engine and after setting a few minutes it went into gear, but only lasted a short while and was stranded again. Had to call for a tow and used tranco transmission. They called and said the wave plate had broke which had caused more damage and would cost $3400. The repairman said this has happened in a lot of these motors, so I called gm and they said…
We have a 2010 chevrolet equinox with 66000 original miles on it and the transmission has failed. We were coming home from a short road trip and the car started to act up. We couldn't go over 25 miles an hour as we only had 2nd gear. We had no reverse or other gears. We prayed to could limp it home and call the tow truck to come and get it. We had to have it towed to the dealer and had to replace the transmission which costs us $4500 and the transmission was not repairable.
Also reported on the 2010 Chevrolet Equinox
Other engine problem
Excessive oil consumption
Other visibility problem
Timing chain, belt or tensioner failure
Other powertrain problem
Other electrical problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 10 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 10 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does transmission will not engage a gear happen on the 2010 Chevrolet Equinox?
Across 6 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 85,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is transmission will not engage a gear on the 2010 Chevrolet Equinox?
10 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.5 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed