hi guys, as above, its VERY stiff to go in and out of gear 4, car on or off makes no difference, nieter if cluch engadged/disengaged....
a bit stumped realy.
it just happened verry suddenly, i was driving had been doing some motorwaying in 5th, (and 4th both gears fine, goin in smooth and coming out smooth), then pulling off from roundabout, all of a sudden it was increadably stiff....

once its in gear it goes fine, no strange noises from the box (no grinds no clunks in any gear). when i engage with car off no wierd noises, just stiffness....

car had been on and going at motorway speeds for about 2 hours....

mzhussein said:

hi guys, as above, its VERY stiff to go in and out of gear 4, car on or off makes no difference, nieter if cluch engadged/disengaged....
a bit stumped realy.
it just happened verry suddenly, i was driving had been doing some motorwaying in 5th, (and 4th both gears fine, goin in smooth and coming out smooth), then pulling off from roundabout, all of a sudden it was increadably stiff....

once its in gear it goes fine, no strange noises from the box (no grinds no clunks in any gear). when i engage with car off no wierd noises, just stiffness....

car had been on and going at motorway speeds for about 2 hours....

Click to expand...

Could it be a recurrence of Post 7 in this old Thread of yours?
https://www.fiatforum.com/stilo/213677-changing-gear-feel-strange-lil-help.html

i thought this also, but what seemed to fix it last time was changing the oil....

can somone tell me how to detach and re-attach the linkages? (just incase it is)

why does my car hurt me so????? i pay thru the nose to keep it right, i even feed it premium food...
at least when it works, its

ok, i changed the oil for castrol smx-s, and thought it was alll gravey, box felt smooth all gears went in and out smooth, then again some driving in 5th, and i temporarily couldnt move the gear stick!!!!!
no gears at all, then as i slowed down, i was able to select 5th, then later on all gear were fine except 4th which is very stiff, have let and aging itallian ex-master mechanic check the linkages, he detached them and checked them all over and said they are all fine.....
anyone know what this problem could be?
only seems to occur when the car is going quick not long periods of time, have driven for 3 hours of london drivign and been fine but EVERY time i go 70+ for a period of time, it re-occurs.....

could it be a bad choice of oil?? would realy like to fix it....

what grade of oil did you put in?

Use this:

http://www.opieoils.co.uk/p-806-mob...mance-commercial-gear-oil.aspx#productDetails

and you won't go wrong.

trying not to sound dense here, but what is the difference between the castrol i used, the tutela from S4P, and the Mobil you suggested?
and why would it make a difference (this is mainly me trying to learn)?

id be very greatful for some insightfull wisdom....

All I can say is, your gearbox was fine until you changed the oil. So it presumably doesn't like the Castrol product. I've used the Mobil synthetic for many years without problem. It's your call at the end of the day...

i think ive made it un-clear, the problem has been consistent, before castrol and after castrol. at least i know for deffinate an oil that is known and good.

But i can not see how the oil would cause this problem, altho i am open to all explanations no matter how outlandish.

Strange development today whilst playing around, the stiffness disappears when i "crunch" gear 4, by crunch i mean letting the clutch in whilst 4th is half engaged, causing grating. after the "crunching" it is amooth again and the more crunching the smotther it gets, untill i do a motorway blast again, then its back to stiffness.....strange ay?

oil is oil, it will work the same what ever you use tbh.

lol this was my initial thought and pretty much what my dad said when i suggested it was oil....

so if we pause the oil suggestion for now, any ideas what it could be?

well if its not the linkages or the clutch, its going to be inside the gearbox id imagine.

yeh, i figured it was somehting inside, but the problem is also present when the car is off, just trying to fgure out whats goin on?
i know when it kicks it ill have to fork out to fix it, just trying to learn a bit and/or prevent it....

mzhussein said:

can somone tell me how to detach and re-attach the linkages? (just incase it is)

Click to expand...

Have you tried lubing up the linkages
I have not removed mine so can't offer any advice on how to do that. However, it might help and I know when I had some icing issues on my JTD (yes, the linkages froze up ) the gearchange was much improved after a very generous (read drowning) oiling.
Worth a try, surely.

deffinatley worth a try. will liberally cover, but what exactly should i drown, and what with? and any reason why crunching in 4th would cause the stiffness to go away (which still hasnt returned after 2 days of town/city driving)?.....
must have been mighty cold to freeze up the linkages? do you keep your car refrigerated???

How the linkages froze:
Floods (drove through some mighty big puddles at the back end of last year) followed by winter in Aberdeenshire & Inverness-shire meant weeks of -10 degrees C nights..... put the two of them together and add a Stilo and you can see that anything is possible :bang: which inevitably costs me money

Linkages:
From the front of the car look down between the battery tray and the engine to the top of the gearbox.
You should see two cables feeding to the gearbox coming from the middle and to the right hand side of the car (your left as you look at it as I have described......).
The cables are housed in a sheath, if that sheath is worn/damaged/not new the chances are that the elements will have got in there (as in my case) what you need to do is get some penetrating oil in the gap between sheath and cable. Simples - not. On a JTD space in there is bloody tight
However, as you're no doubt in a milder climate then here in NE Scotland the chances are that this 'fix' may help things out but may not be the ultimate solution.
Cured my freezing issues and also improved the gearchange no end; so there's an outside chance it might help you.
No harm in trying though

interesting story!

yeh deff worth a try, and is it wierd that today after a bit of "welly" the gearbox feels great and smooth! i think its going throug menapause

I'm having similar on my 1.4, and have noticed that the sheiths on the cables connecting to the gearbox have started to perish.

What oil would be best in application?

Jon.