This happened to anyone else - I searched this great board but found no references.

I was driving along on the freeway going about 80mph and could not get it into 5th. No problem with 6th, 4th, 3rd, and I tried repeatedly for a few minutes. It felt as thought the clutch were not all the way in as I could get it to start to grind if I pushed hard.

Interesting other info:
- After finally getting it into 5th (when stopped), I hard a hard time getting it back out. It sort of stuck in gear. Again, no problem in any other gear.

- Just before the initial problem I spent maybe 30 seconds above 8k in 3rd gear - the car was good and warm - should I not be spending 30 seconds near redline?

- The car has 2500 (hard) miles

- I had been driving on the freeway for 20 plus minutes.

Any info would be appreciated as I don't look forward to having the car stuck in 5th.

Thanks,
crusty.

 

maybe a bent shift fork? I don't think staying near redline causes any damage, but something else may have done it and then that was the straw that broke the camel's back.

really i have no idea, just guessing

 

huh....
so sometimes when I shift I get a tad to excited. I'm not at all technical about the inner workings of a transmission.

What happens if I just use to much force when I try and shift?
Can I actually bend something that makes it difficult to get in and out of a single gear? Would in not effect all gears?

Again, any help, including "never heard of this" is very useful. I don't want to take it to a shop to have them take apart my transmission.

Thanks,
Crustie

 

There was another post many months ago with an almost identical problem as yours. After many of us gave our input and theories as to why, the owner reported that the dealer found that something inside the tranny was broken - some kind of spring or something had either broke or one end of it came off it's anchor. The tranny had to be disassembled to do the fix.
If you are encountering difficulty getting the tranny into any particular gear, the tranny is trying to tell you something. If you force it, it is possible to bend something or break something and depending on what you're forcing, this may or may not involve the whole tranny or just one specific gear.
You should have it looked at.

 

Hmm, is it Crusty or Crustie?

I had similar problems with 6th. It would get particularly bad after track days when I found I couldn't change into 6th at all. Eventually I'd just force it in, hear a snap, and then it would get easier for a while until my next track event. It turned out that the 6th gear synchro had heat welded itself to the shaft. I suspect it was due to poor tolerances in manufacture. Anyway, it was all fixed under warranty and everything is fine now.

 

hey crusty, i had this feeling a couple times too at the beginning. i think it was just cause i was too excited driving my s the first week that i would skip it. now when getting out of fourth i pay attention to get it into fifth. i sometimes thought that it wasn't fifth and would hit the damn thing to the wall then push it up. of course i think it was cause i was a newbie. i'll take it back out today and see if it happens again. good luck with it.

mike

 

Thanks for the advice everyone.

I don't thinks its driver coordination although I'll admit to not having the best at times - first off I drive the car every day for several months and do more or less the same thing - secondly the problem lasted for minutes even when stopped - not uncoordinated for that long.

I did not have any trouble driving home tonight (20 miles). Tomorrow I'll try and warm it up and see if I can reproduce.

Cheers,
Crusty, Crustie, or Crustee (simply depending on mood)

 

I had that exact same problem a few months ago (or maybe it was last fall) at about 12,000 miles. I posted here about the experience. The dealer replaced a bent shift fork and "fixed" the 1:2 grind while they were in there (I still get occasional grinds).

I was able to get it into and out of 5th, but it was very stiff. I just drove it for about two weeks skipping 5th gear completely until the parts came in and they were able to fix it. It was only a minor bother really.