Miles in Florida

1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and reverse all work fine. The shifter feels normal, but when I go to 5th or 6th, the car behaves exactly as if it was in neutral. If the car is off, I can move the shifter into all the gears, and they all feel and sound exactly the same.

There was never any grinding noise. There was some rattling the first time it happened, but after driving in 4th for a while to get home, now there isn't even any wierd noise in 5th or 6th.

Anyone know what it might be, or how expensive I can expect it'll be to fix? Will it hurt anything to keep driving it using only 1-4 until I can get it fixed?

Thanks
Miles

Miles in Florida

Any ideas?

bboyferal

iTrader: (9)

I hate to say this, but it seems you don't have the gears anymore! The rattling you heard may have been the gear rings for fifth and sixth falling apart... Causes? Maybe you jammed them in or did somebody drive your car before that? Check the tranny fluid. If it is fine, you can drive around I'm sure until you fix it. You're fortunate it wasn't first and second! If you're really lucky, it might just be a bent fork or damaged linkage for those two gears, which would be a cheaper situation since the gears might be okay I think. Any M6 guru's, chime in please?

Miles in Florida

Well, the clutch went out late last night. The pedal sticks to the floor. When I push the pedal down, the clutch acts like the pedal is up (ie: can't shift into any gears, and when I push the gearshift towards a gear, it grinds, or the car creeps forward).

I told all this to a couple guys at work. They think the clutch was slipping all along, and the tranny is fine. They say that when I put it in 5th or 6th, the trans goes into gear, and the clutch just slipped. So I guess using 1-4 was slipping enough that it overheated everything and boiled the fluid? I didn't smell burnt clutch, I'm surprised it could slip that much and get that hot without me smelling it. It really didn't act like 1st was slipping that much, either, but since it's the cheapest problem, that's what I'll hope for.

I'm gonna go back to the car, and see if the clutch fluid resevoir is low. If so, maybe I can just add fluid, and drive it to a shop for a new clutch, and hopefully the tranny is okay.

bboyferal

iTrader: (9)

Wow, I hope for your sake that that's the problem. Well, a clutch is kind of a biotch in itself, but the tranny is even more money! Good luck.