OB-IWAN

Hi Guys

Driving along today, a steady slow motorway stint to London followed by about 40mins worth of slow stop/start rush hour driving. The traffic eased a little, enough to use 5th gear at least... but it won’t engage.

All other gears are fine, but fifth gear won’t work. Can’t get the gear to engage despite all my best efforts. l parked up for a few hours hoping it would cure itself, but no joy either.

Had a search on here and found one or two others mentioning similar problems with fifth gear, Synchromesh being the culprit.

Would you agree it’s my Synchromesh that’s failed/causing the problem?

Could it be something else?

If it is the Synchromesh, what’s the repair job entail and how much might it cost?
(Also what would cause it to fail?)

It will be weeks before TGM can fit me in so I thought I’d ask you guys for your diagnosis first!

Thanks in advance

Iwan

Nick Graves

It's more likely to be the reverse gear lockout pin that's gone dry. Try another search.

Synchro failure's more likely to cause crunching and you'd be able to find it when stationary.

keith2.2

I had the TSM update carried out by Rob @ Garage-R - removal and regrease of the shifter plus checking the bolts and it had no effect.

Reverse gear lockout may be worth investigating.

Don't try too hard to get it into gear - you'll struggle equally to get it out again!

Ultra_Nexus

Did you perform a mischange (crunch gears) recently?

arab

this happened to me, but it only lasted for a couple of days, then fifith re-engaged. i was on the way to the garage at the time too. i am pretty sure they thought i just couldnt drive properly when i let them take a look at it ayway! its never been a problem since so maybe they were right!

OB-IWAN

Not crunched the gears recently... or much ever really.

When I tried to engage 5th it crunched so I dipped the clutch, this was the first I knew of the problem.

Since then Ive tried numerous times & ways to get 5th. It feels clunky when I try to pop in 5th as thought something is partly blocking the gaiter. With a little pressure/persistance it moves up its alloted slot, but never feels right. (like its not slotted in, just sitting a bit short). This is with both engine running and off.

On about two occassions I thought it may have finally engaged/slotted so I gingerly engaged the clutch and had to dip immediatley it as it would graunch.

Since the proplem occured only once did 5th work, but it then stopped 6th working!? Stirred the box, tried again and it was back to 5th being unavailable whilst 6th was fine.

Im hoping that just like Arab's car, mine fixes itself!

Thanks for the help guys

martin j

Had this problem with some other car, bolts retaining gearlever had come loose, tightened retaining bolts all then ok, anything like this under the gaiter on the s?

Dixon Motorsports

Sounds like shifter fork is bent, if it's only synchros you can still get into it with double clutch.

Reverse is next to 1st so I don't think is related.

s2konroids

:dingding:

Or gently slam it in 5th .

Ultra_Nexus

The crunch is the surefire sign of it which is why I asked

Use a bit of he-man and force it in - it'll go.