Hi all,

Have to be honest, thought I had already started this thread but can't seem to find it.

Since I picked the car up in June, sometimes but not always it is a bit difficult to get into reverse gear. It's not just me, my partner sometimes has the same problem?

Is this common, should I take it to the dealer, it has a couple of weeks left on warranty, would this be covered?

Grateful for any advice.

There's no synchro on the reverse so if you rush it a bit you its awkward sometimes. I only go for reverse once the car is stationary and I've put it in neutral first, then select reverse.

Before you put it in reverse, put it in first. No crunches

If the gearbox is otherwise okay - i.e. not jumping out of gear, or other issue, then I'd suggest it is probably the gear lever to gearbox linkage that requires an adjustment (or replacement of worn parts).
You need to get it checked out so, were I you, I'd definitely take it to the dealer before the warranty expires.

Turtle said:

Before you put it in reverse, put it in first. No crunches

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That's what I do.

try second gear. as far as i know it has nothing to do with first.

I am having the same issue and it's really scaring me. I just bought my car 3 weeks ago and almost every other day the reverse gear is stuck. I was stuck in a parking lot the other day because the car kept going forward when I was attempting to reverse out of the spot. Fortunately the person in front of me left, so I was able to pull out of the space by going forward...

Is a sticky reverse gear normal? They are treating me as if I just don't know how to put the car in reverse when I told the dealership about the issue.

Noted about trying to get into second next time.

to be more clear about what leads up to this...

this has only ever happened after the car is off and I am trying to back out of wherever I am parked. I will try to reverse - car goes forward. I move the shifter shake it out a bit in neutral and try again - still goes forward. A couple times I tried turning the car off and back on and it worked. Very strange to me.

I always get a crunch if i rush,(brand new twinair plus, as was mentioned above the reverse gear is not syncro.

correct me if I'm wrong but this means the teeth on the reverse gears are cut at 90 degrees which means you need to engage reverse sympathetically.
Syncro gears (1st to 5th etc) the teeth are cut at an angle to aid the gears to "mesh" together smoothly.

also forgot to mention ( i know it sounds basic) but make sure the collar is fully lifted. Sometimes when in a rush I realised that I hadn't pulled it as far as it could go

The crunch is because there's no synchromesh on reverse, i.e. the speed of the reverse pinion isn't raised up to the speed of it's paired gear before meshing it. Whether they're helically cut gears makes little difference..

bgunn said:

The crunch is because there's no synchromesh on reverse, i.e. the speed of the reverse pinion isn't raised up to the speed of it's paired gear before meshing it. Whether they're helically cut gears makes little difference..

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Thanks for the correction, i was confusing helical cut with syncro

Hi all,

Many thanks for your advice, I will try putting it into first or second before into reverse and see how that goes.

Cheers

Or as the manual says, pause for a second or two before engaging reverse

I had this problem on my lupo - gears crunched big time when going into reverse, then it was difficult to get it into 1st sometimes from neutral. It was all to do with some problem with the wiring to the clutch. The tell tale sign of this is that the cluch looks out of alignment of the other pedals. It sounds like your car is a few years old now so I guess it's something else you can check out

keara507 said:

to be more clear about what leads up to this...

this has only ever happened after the car is off and I am trying to back out of wherever I am parked. I will try to reverse - car goes forward. I move the shifter shake it out a bit in neutral and try again - still goes forward. A couple times I tried turning the car off and back on and it worked. Very strange to me.

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i don't want to be rude but it's possible that you don't know how to engage reverse gear in a 500 or maybe can't get it right everytime, because the thing you describe is "impossible" to happen with a manual transmission. also it can't be related to turning the car off and on again in any logical way. i suggest you to go to your dealer and discuss this problem with them, i'm sure they'll help you.

durukan said:

i don't want to be rude but it's possible that you don't know how to engage reverse gear in a 500 or maybe can't get it right everytime, because the thing you describe is "impossible" to happen with a manual transmission. also it can't be related to turning the car off and on again in any logical way. i suggest you to go to your dealer and discuss this problem with them, i'm sure they'll help you.

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With it being a US car there's every possibility that it could be a dualogic.

306maxi said:

With it being a US car there's every possibility that it could be a dualogic.

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keara507 said:

to be more clear about what leads up to this...

this has only ever happened after the car is off and I am trying to back out of wherever I am parked. I will try to reverse - car goes forward. I move the shifter shake it out a bit in neutral and try again - still goes forward. A couple times I tried turning the car off and back on and it worked. Very strange to me.

Click to expand...

how can you shake it out if it's a dualogic

On a different tack.
I have problem with the reverse pull-up ring not dropping when changing from reverse .
I've removed the lever knob to change the gaiter and it is the Ring that sticks.
I've sprayed silicon spray around it with no effect

Any ideas.

For the record for others with similar problem.
Removed gear Nob and dust cover.
Removed reverse ring cable connection.
Pulled off reversing ring.
Sanded the inside of reversing ring.
Checked fit by repeating a fit check and sanding untill smooth free slide achieved.
Presto.. problem fixed