[trahma]

While I've never had problems with the engine on my car, my transmission has always seemed to have issues. From when my clutch initially failed to now.

I was giving a friend a ride in my car the other day and he asked me how the new tires held up compared to the Falkens I had on before. I told him the tires held good but I could get them to chirp a bit into second. I gave it gas after a corner to show him and as I shift heard an awful grinding noise trying to shift into 3rd. Of course these problems only ever occur with someone in the car.

At this point, I have 2nd, 4th, and reverse but can't shift the car into 1st, 3rd, or 5th. I checked the transmission cables where they attach to the shifter and transmission and both seem okay. About 3 weeks ago I had one of the shifter cables pop off of the transmission so I though this was the problem initially. After talking with Noresull he suggested trying to make an adjustment to the cables by holding in the orange tabs and adjusting the tower (best way I can describe it) for the forward and backward shifter motion.

This didn't seem to provide the solution I was going for so I unhooked the cable from the transmission and tried to manually put it into gear. It will move to that position but still grinds as if it's close but just not far enough to actually go into gear.

A couple other things I've noticed is the shifter goes into Reverse before actually coming to the reverse lockout as if the cable isn't adjusted properly. (this is why I initially tried using the orange tabs) While trying to shift it's as if something is blocking me from going the extra distance I need to put the transmission into gear.

Initially driving the car like this the clutch pedal felt fine but last night when I drove it, it feels more spongy.

This car is my first manual and even though I've driven it for 2.5 years, shifting at high RPMS did occasionally grind the gears. When I first started driving the car, I did this bad a couple times. Ever since then occasionally the gears grind as if something has been bent/broken. Driving other Foci and other cars with manuals though I never grind any gears, driving normally or aggressively which leads me to believe that something has been bad from my learning on the transmission and was getting worse as time progressed.

I'm going to climb under the car after work again today but wanted to see if anyone had any suggestions for things I can test but I'm afraid I'm running out of options. I'm planning on checking the transmission fluid to see if that's low but other than that I can't think of anything else short of pulling the transmission off.

So any ideas / comments on what the problem may be?

 

[ZX3TUNING]

tranny fluid wont effect it BUT drain the fluid and look for metal particals. if the fluid has a very noticable copper shine to it you probably stripped a syncro from all the grinding.
as for why it wont go into gear or why it goes into rev without the rev-lock, your shifter fork is probably bent which would give you the problem similar to out of adjustment cables.
i have dropped shifter forks before and the only way to fix it is by pulling the tranny and opening up the case!

time to call terry and get a real tranny built!

 

[blueovalbaboon]

the last few times i heard abt this problem was when a tranny mount had busted, and the transmisssion was rocking so much that the shifter couldn't move relative to the transmission itself.

So check your tranny mounts and get back to us. Although that groudnign sounds like a syncro problem.

 

[ZX3TUNING]

that sounds reasonable aswell
never though about that actually but that would have to be a big rock and wouldn't that also cause it to pop out of gear?

 

[Tekin112]

time to call terry and get a real tranny built!

 

[ZX3TUNING]

yeah, you love yours don't you... aren't you glad i told you to call him!

 

[Tekin112]

ya....now get a very good deal on a set of ITB's And ill put a banner on my car for your shop

 

[trahma]

the last few times i heard abt this problem was when a tranny mount had busted, and the transmisssion was rocking so much that the shifter couldn't move relative to the transmission itself.

So check your tranny mounts and get back to us. Although that groudnign sounds like a syncro problem.

Now that you mention it, I noticed my transmission mount seemed very loose while I was troubleshooting the problem. It also seemed as if one of the external torx bolts on the cover of the transmission is stopping the connection from moving fully into position. If I was WOT and shifting, I can see how the motor would have shifter the transmission some to put it out of alignment. Hopefully this is the problem.

 

[1FocusedHokie]

Well Justin, I must say that it does sound as if the tranny is dead. I know when my third gear started grinding it was only a matter or two or three weeks before I needed to double-clutch it in to third.

Good luck and hope to see you in a few weeks.

 

[Jestercow]

I realize this is a wicked old post...but this has happened to me probably a dozen times. It seems that a hard shift into third will actually move the location of neutral (in the shifter itself) forward about an inch or so. Problem is, there's not enough motion before you hit the front of the shift pedestal thingy to actually engage the gears. I know it sounds ghetto (capital G) but I just pull hard into 4th a few times and it tugs everything back down to where it should be. Way too late for you, I reckon, but maybe it'll help someone else.