Technical Gear selection woes

[brispan]

Hi all,
I have an ongoing and now worsening issue with selecting gears in my 1.2l panda. In seemingly random situations, I'll be met with firm resistance when trying to select a gear. The "fix" is to move back into neutral and then try to find the gear again, at which point the transmission pulls the stick into place smoothly.
I had always experienced this a little with 5th when I purchased it 2 years ago, and then when I started to notice it on other gears assumed that I was not moving the stick itself as directionally as I thought. The resistance can occur moving between any gear, including 3-4 and 4-3. There's no grinding or crunching when it eventually does fall into place, and the gear stays in place until I try to move it again at which point it comes out smoothly.
When it does happen, double clutching doesn't make any difference either. I've now realised it also sometimes happens when the engine is off.

From what I'm reading, it could be as bad as needing a new gearbox if the gears or synchros are damaged. I changed the gearbox oil in March, it came out clear, and am considering draining the oil again to see if there is synchro or gear debris this time as it seems to have worsened.
However I'm hopeful that it could be something slightly more simple than gearbox failure, perhaps changing one of the cylinders as the clutch does become noisy when the car has been driven a while with lots of gear changes, or even a linkages issue.

I would love to know if any of you have any ideas, whether it's self diagnostics I can run before taking to the garage or if there's a fix I might be able to do myself.

Thank you!

 

[koalar]

More than likely the PTFE lining has worn away in the gear selector cables, common fault

 

[koalar]

More info here

 

[koalar]

Here's how I normally test for it

If it also fails engine off

But fine from the top of the gearbox

It will be the selector cables

Fairly easy and quick to do yourself but you do need the car up a ramp or an axle stands

It's a tight squeeze with the battery in place but still doable with my fat arms

 

[koalar]

cylinders as the clutch does become noisy when the car has been driven a while

Sounds like a separate fault, also common with the slave cylinder

Remove the rubber cover and throw some silicone grease inside

If left eventually the pedal will start to stick to the floor

 

[brispan]

Hi Koalar, that's awesome info thank you. I have to change the engine oil and filter soon along with regular rust proofing so will have it on stands for that.
On that pdf, my chassis number is a fair number ahead of the affected range they list - do you reckon this just because the article was published in 2006?(And not something they supposedly fixed in later manufactures)
Thank you for the video as well, excuse my ignorance but is the part that you're moving on the gearbox the external piece that directly moves between the gears themselves?
Thank you again

 

[koalar]

Yes

This is the same as moving the gearstick forwards and backwards

It's a strange mechanism, the throw of the gearstick is slightly less than need to select a gear, the big iron block on the bottom of the gearbox lever is a counter weight, it pushes or pulls the cable the last few mm, too much resistance in the cables and it jams


Yes it effect a 08

Fiat have tried to fix the problem several times, there's at least 3 different cables that have been used, they all fail to some degree

We also get them rusty, snapped and frayed

You can also squirt some light oil down the gearbox end and see if it improves, from your symptoms I am 90% sure it will, if it does, it's confirmed and⁷ you are safe to order the cables

Don't use grease as is something suggested, it lasts a day and turns to grinding paste, I learnt the hard way