the other day while pulling out of work i selected reverse and pulled back when i changed out of reverse i couldnt get in gear? any ideas?

no idea at all


when you do a drop out you take it out of reverse and stick it in first while you're still going backwards so it should work fine. if you couldnt select agear maybe its voodoo witchcraft

well i was wondering wether it was the clutch or something else?
if it was a gear box problem would i still be able to select gears?
it goes into gear when turned off but not when running
it grinds like hell when i try to put it back into reverse?
and those nice people from the AA had to rescue me - again
Cheers Andy:bang: :bang: :bang: :bang: :bang:

oh right, so you cant select any gear with the engine running. i get it now, its the slave cylinder, happens all the time. remove the battery to see if its leaked, or even easier check the brake fluid reservoir, if its low it means the slave cylinder is leaking. easy to replace (less than an hour) and cheap to buy (£19.99 @ motorfactors)

cheers ill give it a go
are the clutches difficult to change do you know?
do you need to remove the gear box?
Andy

just out of interest?

you dont need to remove gearbox to change the clutch slave cylinder, its on top of the gearbox and easy to change if you remove the battery and battery tray. a set of spanners is all you need, and a bleed kit to bleed the cylinder once fitted.

but changing the actual clutch will require the gearbox to be removed, its not technically difficult but its a real pain in the arse and the gearbox is bloody heavy. getting the nearside driveshaft off is a nightmare, there's loads of nuts and bolts holding it onto the gearbox, unlike most cars where it just slots in.

cheers again
hope its just the slave cylinder then :worship:

hi i checked the break fluid and it didnt seem to be lowdo you reckon i can take from this that the clutch has gone ?

it is very rare that a clutch would die so suddenly, they tend to wear out very slowly. they begin to slip (plate wear) and get noisey (release bearing wear) a long time before they fail. and even when they fail you can almost always still select all gears, its just that the car wont pull away when in gear.

if your car wont go into gear with the engine running, yet it will when the engine is stopped, i'd think it could be a gearbox or clutch problem. if it is the clutch then something must have suffered a sudden failure (such as the release bearing pushing through the diaphram spring's arms) you wont know until the gearbox is off, and even then it may be difficult to figure out what the problem is if the clutch seems fine. finding out your gearbox is dead after the new clutch is fitted means double the labour costs because it'll have to come off again.

this has been one of the best cars ive had for reliability
its a shame its not going
cheers for your help
i like to get as much info as i can before going to the garage

good luck

fingers crossed it'll just need a new clutch, if it does its money well spent because it adds value to the car, and it feels so much better too.