My wife's Stilo MW JTD has developed a problem with the gear change. It's an 04/54 car 22k miles we've had it since new. In the last month or two the springing that returns the gear stick to the 3rd & 4th gear plane has gone and the change from 1st to 2nd, 2nd to 3rd and 3rd to 4th is getting stiffer. If you push the stick across to the left for 1st/2nd and let go, it just stays there. You have to actually pull it back across (with some resistance). If anyone has experienced this before and has an idea of what the cause / solution is, i'd be grateful and relieved.

Hi Parsley and welcome to the forum,

I can't say I've heard of this fault as a common problem on the stilo hence your lack of responses. I'm not aware of how the rod change works on the stilo but from previous cars there is sometimes a spring or similar below the gearstick that automatically returns the stick to the centre.

Is there any crunching when changing gear? It may help to bleed the clutch system at the slave cylinder, for info the brakes work on the same hydrallic system so theres only one reservoir.

Have a search on the forum as there have been posts in the past with step by step instructions.

Had this before where the gear lever would not spring back and self centre - on top of the gearbox the selector mechanism has a bush which is on the tight side and with low mileage diesel cars the pivot used to seize a bit.

It can be taken off in situ and the bush can be 'modified' using a file and lubricated generously before reassembly.