Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Doesn't go in gear when idle!? clutch?

This is what's happening, I'd appreciate any insight: the car shifts fine while I'm driving, but once I stop at a redlight, put it in neutral, clutch pedal up, wait for green, clutch pedal down, doesn't go in ANY gear (no grinding or anything, just as if there is a wall there). I have to play with clutch up/down, then maybe it goes in 1st or 2nd. I experimented a bit in the parking lot tonight and what I noticed that once I turned the engine off when this thing was happening (clutch pedal was down) it went in gear as smooth as butter. I tried it several times and it was consistent. What's happening here?

Sounds like the clutch isn't fully disengaging.

Shouldn't it grind when I try to put it in gear then?

Originally posted by brianl703:

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Sounds like the clutch isn't fully disengaging.

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possibly try bleeding your clutch. the whole not grinding while trying to force it into gear sounds a little odd. have you had any brake work done or get really low on brake fluid recently? hth Rob

Well, I had some work done on my front brakes a couple of weeks ago at the shop...I have to check the brake fluid level...

Originally posted by robzride:

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possibly try bleeding your clutch. the whole not grinding while trying to force it into gear sounds a little odd. have you had any brake work done or get really low on brake fluid recently? hth Rob

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Mine does the same thing ocassionally. Apparently others' do too, which seems to only be fixed by replacing the slave cylinder / throwout assembly. Since the clutch seems to work fine otherwise, my solution: don't shift into neutral at stop lights.

It won't grind when you try to put it in gear unless your synchros are bad or you are trying to put it in an unsychronized gear (like reverse on most cars--the Contour has a synchronized reverse).

The function of the synchros is to prevent the gear from engaging until the speeds of the input/output are the same.

When you find that takes a lot of effort to put the transmission in gear, the synchros are what is keeping it from going into gear easily. Try pushing harder enough times and you'll ruin them, then it will start grinding.

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Well, I had some work done on my front brakes a couple of weeks ago at the shop...I have to check the brake fluid level...

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Did this start shortly AFTER the brake work? The brakes and clutch share the same fluid reservoir. If air was introduced into the system during the brake work, they had to bleed the brakes at the calipers but they probably did not bleed the clutch cylinder. The mechanic may not be aware that they share the same system. Bleed the clutch and see if that fixes it. Just keep an eye on your fluid level during the bleeding. You don't want to reintroduce more air into the system by letting the level drop too low!! Otherwise you'll have re bleed the entire brake and clutch system!!

As far as your grinding question goes, no if the clutch is not disengaging you won't even be able to move the shift forks enough to get to the point of grinding. Grinding from bad synchros would only occur as you are getting into your chosen gear. If the clutch is not disengaging, you are not getting to that point

My Mustang had a bad 2nd gear synchro and it would indeed grind if I tried to put it in 2nd without pushing the clutch in (car still). If the car were moving, it'd grind no matter what, clutch in or out.

I would probably think its is your throw outbearing...had a similar situation on another car of mine...turn out to be a bad throw out bearing..needless to say i replaced everthing since the tranny was already down