Transmission Problem, Car won't go into gear, What's the problem?
 

Ok so I haven't searched yet but here's the story and the problem.

I installed a Competition Clutch Stage 4 approximately a year and a half ago. It has about 15,000 miles on it.

Turbo'd the car with the dezod kit on 8 psi about a year and a half ago as well.

I recently had problems with the slave and master cylinders because they would not allow the clutch pedal to return. I had a shop replace both of them about 6 months ago and have since put on about 5,000 miles.

So today I ran into a new problem. I can't shift the car into gear. When the engine is on I can't shift into gear. I press the clutch down and I can't move the shifter into a gear. If I turn the engine off then I can shift the car into gear whether I press the clutch down or not. So if the engine is off and I shift into first and hold the clutch pedal down and then turn the engine on the car wants to move forward even though the clutch pedal is pressed all the way down.

Sometimes I can the car to go into gear but the condition seems to be occurring more frequently and more seriously. If I'm driving and it won't shift then I can push extra hard and it will go into gear. Obviously I am not planning on driving the car but I didn't feel like waiting for a tow. I guess my question is what is the problem and why do you think that is the problem. Has any one had any similar experiences?

Thanks a lot,
JOE

either the clutch is bad or the tranny.......have you has the tranny looked at before

99% sure its the clutch.

I hate to beat a dead horse but it's a tC and a CC....recipe for failure whether you are turbo'd or N/A.

I have not had my tranny looked at before.

Also I thought CC was a good clutch. I only wanted to buy good parts for the clutch and turbo and I guess I didn't do good enough research.

Anyone know what the best clutch is to put down 250 whp? I don't really give a ____ about price because I don't want to be back in this position again.

Thanks,
JOE

I would go with either Clutch Masters or Exedy. Exedy is probably the better choice.

Neither of those actually. The best clutch by far, although slightly mire expensive, for the amount of power you're making is the ACT street clutch. It is meant for daily driving and holds much more power than you're putting down. I also have a CC stage 4 but after reading on the forum the huge amounts of failure it is only a matter of time before mine goes, they have some real quality control issues at CC. Mine has been installed since May, if it makes it to January I'll replace it before it fails. I'm making roughly 25 more who than 250 and I'm going with ACT.

Does the clutch pedal return to release position?
You may have an internal seal leak in the master clutch cylinder. Have someone press down the clutch for ya while you check if the slave cylinder is moving the clutch lever to disengage clutch. If it doesn't move it you may have a hydraulic problem.

Sounds to me like a hydraulic issue that or something is lodged between the pressure plate and clutch disc.

Was the clutch pedal adjusted properly when the clutch was first installed, by that I mean when you came off the clutch pedal it wasn't instantly engaged.

I know EXACTLY what this is, as it has happend to me twice now - first time with the OEM clutch at about 72k miles and now on my stage 2 CC after only 9 months and less than 20k. in my case the CC failure was probably caused by what don mentions above - lack of proper adjustment during install. the stealership did it, so I am not surprised... they even left one of my vac lines unattached afterwards, causing a CEL for the next day and a half until me and a friend tracked it down.

the problem is as follows: one of the pressure plate springs has broken free from it's mount and is in contact with the flywheel. this is why you cant shift when engine is on, and why it doesn't release even when the clutch pedal is pushed all the way down.

my 07 will be getting an ACT street clutch put in tomorrow after a week of having to avoid first as much as possible, and getting alot of rev-match up and down shift practice (yes, I can shift up or down without using the clutch... pretty damn smooth most of the time too, sometimes even smoother than when the clutch is working perfectly). what is really surprising is that over the last week I have found that the car does significantly better on gas when shifting this way - more than 10% better - and I have not changed the speeds at which I drive.

as I mentioned earlier, you CAN drive it in this condition, but you MUST avoid stopping as much as possible. if you DO stop and have to shift into first, shut it down, put in in first, then start it and get off the clutch as fast as you can. upshifts from there are easy:

1) apply a small amount of pressure to the stick towards neutral as you let off the gas (DO NOT USE EXCESSIVE FORCE OR YOU CAN BEND THE SHIFT FORK). letting off the gas puts the transmission into a zero-load state for a moment which is similar to having the engine off. during this short period, the trans will go to neutral with hardly any effort.

2) using a similar amount of pressure (maybe a little more - depends on your car), move the stick towards the next gear up while staying off the gas. as the engine slows, it will match revs with the next gear, causing a second zero-load condition at which point the gears will mesh with very little effort. this window is much more brief than that for going into neutral due to the fact that the engine is not transitioning from power-on to power-off, however you should be able to do this and not get even the slightest grind.

clutchless downshifting is trickier, but is really just one extra step. proceed as step 1 above to get the car into neutral. instead of going right to step 2 once in neutral, hit the gas for a moment so that your engine revs climb past what you would need for a smooth downshift *with* the clutch. let the revs fall from that point, THEN proceed with step 2 above. downshift should go by the book from there.

now before you all go and flame me because of fears that this would cause substantial damage to the clutch/trans. fear not. performed right, this is a very low-load technique, and in worst case should cause no more wear to the synchros than a poorly revmatched shift using the clutch, although I doubt it even gets close to that.

I am having this exact same problem right now. but with my clutchmasters stage 3. What ever became of this? My mechanic told me to get a new clutch just by driving it., i really want to know if this is necessary because my clutch is fairly new. Is the clucth shot when this happens??

Thats exactly what happened to me, but it happened at 36k miles. I was driving to a freaking wedding and all of a sudden I couldnt shift my car into gear so I had to force it!!! After the wedding I dropped the car off at the dealership and they ripped it apart and told me it was the clutch. I said ok, so they replaced the clutch and I asked them to keep the old clutch so I can look at it cuz I new it wasnt normal wear and tear that did this. When I recieved my old clutch I noticed one of the plastic things that sits inside of one of the springs broke off sending the spring on a journey through my tranny. Sounds exciting doesnt it. I say its clutch all the way and your having the same problem that I ran into!!! I still have that old clutch, maybe I should find it so I can take a picture and show u guys!!! Good luck

^ thanks bro, i reeally hope its just a clutch issue too

Well, looks like my CC is finally giving me the same problem as the OP after 16,000 miles.

Great.

its the clutch

I put a brand new clutch in and the problem got worse

I interrupt this thread for a very important PSA...See thread in sig to stop resurrecting 8 month old threads...that is all.

FACEPALM

^ nice bump

Yeah, I expected the clutch to last me 1,000,000 miles. I mean, even though its seen way over four dozen runs at the two tracks I frequented and the countless abuses on the city streets...

I suspect my CC stage 3 clutch was a fluke of the manufacturing process in that it lasted more than one run at the track and more than one year in my car :clap:

I also suspect that as long as the clutches are made, this thread will remain relevant. No need to make a new thread when one already exists on the EXACT SAME SUBJECT.

I suspect, you haven't seen the thread at all that has experiences from all the "MY CLUTCH HAS FAILED" thread combined into one.

I also suspect, you haven't seen the CC response to their failing clutches also in the thread.

I would also venture to assume you haven't seen the countless failures of their clutches on vehicles that are NOT boosted.

In closing, the point was to keep the information in a central location so instead of looking up the problem in 10 different threads, there is 1 which has all the information from the threads. My last count was around 12 failures of their clutch which cannot hold the power they're rated for combined into 1 thread.

Finally, I spoke with the OP in regards to his issue months ago:

But what do I know, I was just trying to keep pertinent information centralized.