Lurking Lawyer

I almost posted this on the existing current thread about gearchanges, but it sounds sufficiently different as to mean it's probably something entirely different to the problem reported on that thread.

I noticed last week when driving home from Manchester that, all of a sudden, it's quite hard to get the car in and out of 5th gear. I habitually change up through all the gears, sometimes missing 5th to go straight from 4th to 6th but not often. I thought to begin with that the clutch was going to die on me in the fast lane of the M6, but the gearbox is as smooth as ever when changing into any gear other than 5th.

The nearest analogy I can find is that it feels "notchy" like when you try to change gear without the clutch being fully depressed (except it IS fully depressed in this case) - there's the same feeling of obstruction when I try to change up from 4th or down from 6th.

I don't think it's a rev-matching problem. I admittedly haven't tried double-declutching, so I'm not sure whether that would make any difference.

It's not a major problem since I don't find it any great hardship to bypass 5th completely. From what Brian said on the other post, it doesn't sound like I'm harming the gearbox or engine by going from 4th to 6th and vice versa. So, I guess it's probably just something to get the dealer to look at whenever I can get around to booking the car, unless any of you more technically gifted owners out there have got any ideas......?

Frenchie

Sounds like a synchro problem and therefore a trip to the dealer, Mark. But that's only my take on it (I'm no mechanic!)

KAMcDonald

i had the same problem last fall. went to the dealer after seeing something about a TSB for something that sounded like it. dealer did not think much of it at the time, but noted it in case it got worse. was annoying for a couple weeks, but then disappeared on its own and has not reoccurred since.

one time on the road, after going into 5th hard, it popped back into neutral. other times it was hard both going in and out of gear. at the dealer, i was trying to describe it and was showing them that at a stop it went into all gears with a finger push, but at 5th it was hitting something and required a hard push or a slight movement back and forth before sliding into gear. the tech went into a discussion of how tight the trans is and may need to be broken in, i pointed out it was a MY2000 with 15k on it. he then amended his story to the trans would naturally be harder to engage at a stop since it was meant to be in motion.

keith

Turtle

I'd get down the dealer as soon as you can. If there is a breakage that's left debris inside the gearbox it could deterioate fast. If not, then the dealer's in a better position to given an opinion than board members with a text description.

When I had selection problems with my first gearbox, it deterioated quite quickly. No idea what the problem was, as the whole gearbox was shipped off to Japan - the dealer didn't open it.

-Brian.