2006 Xterra No Reverse But Drive Works Fine

Here are a couple of thoughts that, I think, might shed some light on your problem.

Since your Xterra doesn’t have reverse, it’s telling you something right there. It’s telling you there’s something wrong, probably with the torque converter as it seems to be in “limp-home” mode. I’d suggest getting your Xterra to a service area and having a diagnostic run with an up-to-date OBD-II tester. Today, those devices are pretty accurate, and it should pick up the problem.

My other thought is that when you ruptured the tranny cooler one of its lines may be kinked (thus the higher pressures). Given the way transmissions share things, it is quite likely that reverse may have been knocked out. Again, the OBD-II diagnostic should find the problem.

I suspect that you are looking at replacing at least one line to the tranny cooler, if not the device itself because it may have had internal damage that isn’t showing up. It is also possible that there is overpressure damage to the torque converter.

Whatever way you look at it, the cost should be somewhere about $1,500 to fix the problem.