Would any of you be able to help me think the following issue through, or point me to relevant places in these forums?

 

The issue: This afternoon, my Fabia began having two problems. First, it is now a bit difficult to change gears when the engine is running. She will do it, but I'm meeting with resistance (all five gears and reverse). When the car is turned off, I can change gears without trouble (clutch in).

 

Second, she shakes and shudders when in gear. For example, when I am stopped, clutch in, car idling -- if a gear is engaged, she shudders. If I put the gear stick to neutral, she's calm. There doesn't seem to be any problem with power -- I can drive off from stopped without other trouble, and she accelerates all right. But she's somewhat shuddery while driving, and definitely again when I come to a stop (unless like I say, gear stick in neutral).

 

I've checked the transmission fluid and the level looks okay. It's not near the max line, but it looks a few millimetres above the min line.

 

My questions: One. Any ideas what's going on? Is this a gear box problem of some kind? Is it a flywheel problem? Clutch? Any all neither?

Two. Is it possible to tell what the problem is on my own? (i.e. is it obvious like "your headlight bulb burned out" or is it "have to take the gearbox apart for a look"?)

Three. Can I drive her or is this a "leave her on the drive unless you're driving straight to a garage" thing? I don't want to cause further damage or have a breakdown (eek).

Four. Any ideas about ballpark costs? I know it's not going to be £50, but am I looking at £500? £5000?

Thanks very much!

So the garage said it could be the clutch, the gearbox, and/or the flywheel. When they had a look, it turned out just to be the clutch. The issue was between the release bearings and the diaphragm spring. The cost came in at just under £500, all inclusive.

 

A new problem though, and it's not clear why -- some of the electrics don't work properly anymore. The interior light (on "open door" setting) doesn't seem to want to switch off when driving away. The car key's lock button won't lock the car (or set the alarm). And the ~5s grace period, after turning the engine off and taking the key out of the ignition, that allows you to twiddle the electric windows, is no longer there.

 

The key will lock the car manually (door lock on the outside of the door), but it won't set the alarm that way. The electric windows do go up and down when the key is turned in the ignition. The interior light does work for "on" and "off" settings.

 

Any ideas ... ?? The garage was a bit stumped but said maybe disconnecting the battery did something weird with respect to the key. They said bring the car back with the spare key, and they'll try resetting the key to manufacturer spec to see if that fixes it. Fwiw, I tested the spare key when I got home, and it wouldn't lock the car via the button either. Weird.

drivers door microswitch failure?