Manual Transmission can't put in gear 2nd Gen XB
 

Woke up this morning to go to work and I can't get the shifter to go into reverse or 1st gear. I put the clutch to the floor and when I try to put stick to reverse it just grinds and won't go in. It does the same thing for 1st gear as well. Its a 2012 with about 140K. I bought the vehicle 50K miles ago and have not changed the transmission fluid or done any work on the tranny, clutch or master cylinder.

Anybody have this issue? According to my research, possible reasons include:
1. Low or dirty transmission fluid.
2. Master clutch cylinder
3. Fly wheel?
4. Clutch is out?

Does anyone have some advice for me?

First thing I would do park the car in a location where I could initiate driving it forward (without first having to reverse any distance). Next, I would place the shift lever in 1st gear AND THEN start the engine with feet firmly on the brake & clutch pedals.

If by doing this, the engine starts and the car doesn't attempt to move at all, the clutch/flywheel are fine. I would then drive the car in 1st gear around the block (to get some heat generated within the transmission oil)......drive around the block 5 minutes??? After I feel like the transmission oil has some heat built up in it, I would then drive & shift thru the gears as normal. If, after the transmission has heat built up and shifting feels normal, I would then replace the transmission fluid with new synthetic.

On the other hand, if by doing this, the engine starts and the car attempts to move, you know you have a clutch related problem......or worse, a transmission problem.

Being that the transmission isn't going into 1st OR Reverse is an ominous sign.

Thanks so much for the reply! I tried to switch through all the gears while the car is off and it did so just fine. So I started it up while it was in reverse and I was able to drive it backwards down the driveway just like normal. But I was not able to switch out of reverse until I turned the car off. After which I started it up in first and drove it back up the driveway. The clutch operation feels normal, I just can't shift out of gear until I turn off the vehicle.

Little update... I tried to do the free stuff first. So I tried to bleed clutch at the slave cylinder. It worked beautifully. Drives like normal now. Prolly have a leak thats letting air into the system. Eventually I'll prolly have to change the slave cylinder. Or figure out where the leak is and address it.

Before changing the slave cylinder.......first look at the coupler where the plastic hose clips onto the slave cylinder.

There's a small O ring inside the coupler and it gets hard over time and fails to seal properly which allows air to enter the clutch line.

Working Mon-Fri at local Toyota dealership, I've seen plenty of these vehicles with well over 200,000 miles on them with original clutch master & slave cylinders........

During any given year, I may replace one or two bad slave cylinders versus 100 of those hoses with the crappy O ring.

You can't get this O ring just by itself at a retail store......you have to buy the entire clutch line. The dealership I work at cost is $139 for this hose/coupler assembly.

​​​​​​​Something to think about.
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Thank you so much for the reply! That is some very solid advice! I will be taking a look at that immediately.

I need to see if there is a video or something. I am worried that i'll spew fluid all over and cause more air to get in the system..

Is it an easy fix?

...or, if it's just an O-ring you need, go to grainger.com (or MSC or McMaster Carr). The are all industrial supply companies, i you have a favorite, use that one
Type in "Metric O-rings"
Grainger has Viton and EDPM o-rings - I would go with Viton rather than the recommended epdm. I mean why use them if they shrink and harden up.

But what size do you need?
Assuming a radial fit o-ring, not a face seal o-ring.
Measure the ID of the hole it goes into and the shaft size (OD) where the o-ring fits. A Measuring caliper like this would be good enough
You need a compression on the o-ring of between 5-20%, so pick a cross section diameter that gives you that.
As a check, it should fit fairly easily in the width of the groove

A 25 pack of o-rings costs $10-25 (quite variable) +$2 for the caliper