So this morning bl3w nuts... I get in my car start it up. It has been sitting since last night when I got back from philly, about a 200 mile drive. I go to put it into reverse, and it stops short, like its blocked off or something is jammed in between it. So I go through the gears to make sure I'm not a dumb@ss and I can only hit 1-4 gears. It literally will not go over to the third column, so I am sitting there dumbfounded.

I keep trying to put it over into 5th/reverse and get nothing for ten minutes. I started getting frustrated and didn't know what to do. So I kept playin with it, and eventually it slid over... although it was extremly tough. I drove to work and I ran through the gears and it remained rough. Parked it and got onto SL.

Anyone else experience this?

 

Wow.. never heard of this before.

 

I have to sorta double clutch it in the mornings. But from then on its fine. Did you try putting the clutch in, putting it in Neutral, letting the clutch out, then putting it in again and putting it in reverse? thats what usually works for me.

 

voltaire it wasn't that problem... I've had that one before. It was the problem that I couldn't even move the shifter to the right far enough to engage either the fifth or reverse.

 

I think that your transmission is OK, just your typical cold tranny in the morning behavior. It has happened to all cars I have owned with a manual transmission, including my motorcycles.
If you have a slight slope on your driveway, you can let it roll forward or backwards (depending on the direction of the slope) for a few inches to unload the shifting compnenets in your tranny or make things inside line up better and the gears should just slip in.

Chombi
05 FM tC

 

Thanks Chombi.. I was assuming somethin along the lines of that. But it never happend in my 01 civic... but I did try to rock it back and forth with my legs out the door.

 

Driving manuals practially since I've been old enough to drive, this is a common occurence. As noted before, just put it in first and move a little forward, and then reverse it. If on a hill, roll a little, and then reverse it. No worries...

 

Had to be the weather.
I'm down here in Hershey, and it was super cold this morning. My guess is it's downright freezing up where you are.

 

Yeah it wasn't too bad, cuase it was below freezing last week and my windows froze up and this week it was this...

 

Yeah it wasn't too bad, cuase it was below freezing last week and my windows froze up and this week it was this...

 

Yea im in York and mine does a similar thing, I just put the clutch in shift to second, and then to 5th. works every time. Try it.

 

Thanks Zero, Ill take any tip I can get.

 

check where the lines are because there might be something in the way of the shifter lines hold it back

 

(In my some of my old 4X4s, in extreme conditions, I have had slush/water/snow/mud/whatever get into the linkage and freeze so they couldn't be shifted into some gears until the blockage warmed up and melted...)

 

Ok it not a frozen linkage. Did you change toa short shifter?????? If you did you didn't use enough grease on the yoke. If you didn't just could be cold gear oil but did you try pulling up the clutch pedal just a little when your at the shift gate. Good luck Man

 

I feel the same too, sometime it is hard to go into 5th gear, always feel some resistance... is that normal too?

 

change the transmission fluid to higher grade perhaps?

 

The fact that the Tc has a very low gear ratio might contribute to this but im just guessing. I have the same problems sometimes too. But for me its my 1st and R gears that give me resistence. I have noticed that just popping that b1tch gear in doesnt grind and works just fine for me so thats what i do. It never persist so I don't think its anything bad. So if you want, when that gear wont go in, just pop it in, im sure you'll be fine.

 

After reading over this post and seeing some people say this is normal , I don't beleive so. I have owned 2 corrolla's, 1 Tercel, 1 celcia. I live it PA and never had this problem in any of them no matter how cold it got outside. If my TC starts what is decsribed here, it will be at the dealing the same day. Manuals my get sluggish first thing in the morning on freezing cold days, but they should always go into gear. It's been below 20 here the last week and my TC has not done this yet. Besides owning many toyota's, I've had Manual BMW and Chevy and never had this problem.

Good luck, jjp

 

Maybe Ill get the whip check out then.