Won't go into gear with engine on - fine once moving

[Squirrelofdoom]

Hi guys,

Haven't been on in a while, just been enjoying the car However....(and to preface this, I haven't had any clutch/gearbox problems at all during my ownership).

Was pulling out of the garage this morning, and the car wouldn't go into gear - just a brick wall. Turned the car off, went into gear fine with the engine off. Turned on again, wouldn't go into reverse, 1st or 2nd.

So, started the car in reverse gear with my foot on the clutch and it lurched backwards and stalled. After that, I keyed on and off again and it was absolutely fine on the drive into work. I made sure to stop at lights a few times, even stopped at the petrol station on the way in - turned the car off and left it for a few minutes then came back to it - no problems at all. Car felt normal to drive too.

Could this jsut be a weird one off? I know I've had it before in other cars where the splines just wouldn't engage and I had to push the car a little just to get them to line up and it was fine...This time it wouldn't go in until I'd lurched the car backwards a few feet.

Feels like a bearing/rod got temporarily stuck and now it's fine? It was raining heavily last night and I had to traverse some fairly deep floods given the area I live...and I may not have taken a couple of them as slow as I should (thumbs up for car puddle jumping!!)

Any thoughts boys? The car is due a service and MOT and is going in soon anyway, should I ask them to pay special attention to clutch stuff or should I just write this off as a weird one-off?

Cheers,
Aran

 

[aragorn]

Sounds like the clutch itself was stuck/rusted to the flywheel.

Starting it in gear and the associated lurch presumably freed it off, and then it worked normally afterwards...

Usually only happens on cars that have been laid up for a while, but maybe the wading got a lot of water into the bellhousing and helped the two parts rust/stick together.

 

[Squirrelofdoom]

quite possible, was a fair amount of water around last night....maybe less puddle jumping next time :S

thanks mate

 

[beachbuggy]

Sounds like the clutch itself was stuck/rusted to the flywheel.

Starting it in gear and the associated lurch presumably freed it off, and then it worked normally afterwards...

Usually only happens on cars that have been laid up for a while, but maybe the wading got a lot of water into the bellhousing and helped the two parts rust/stick together.

Had something similar after working on the car, turned out the earth cable had got stuck inbetween the gear mechanism and gearbox, restricting gear movement, it freed its self but you could see where it had pinched the wire. Maybe have a look at that to check a socket/screwdriver or something is lodged.

 

[Squirrelofdoom]

well, I haven't worked on that aspect of the car at all...so don't see how anything could have got lodged - unless you mean something I picked up while driving along?