Gear shift has become difficult suddenly

[Wmc]

Making a long journey today, as i came off the motorway had some difficulty changing gear it seems to be more troublesome in all gears now.

 

I have a 2002 fabia mk1 sdi.

 

Has anyone had these issues come about suddenly?  Cluch feels fine, no slipping in high gear, and car is fine once in gear it just is either tight or crunches on changing? 

 

Any ideas on what may have happened?  

 

I have just tried to reset the linkage stops on the cables but this doesnt seem to have had any effect.

 

Any help or advice/ thoughts would be much appreciated...

[TMB]

Have you checked the gearbox oil level? Where is the biting point of the clutch?

[Wmc]

Clutch bite point feels the same, quite low on pedal but has felt the same since 45000 miles.  Ive just passed 90000...  

 

I havent checked the gearbox oil level.  I will try and do that today

 

Thanks for the ideas

 

[SuperbTWM]

Sounds like clutch is not disengaging to me. 

[sepulchrave]

Fragile gearbox on the SDI, failure is not unheard of.

[Wmc]

Does that mean i need a new clutch? 

 

[Wmc]

Would it normally go from fine to failure in one journey? 

Im just a bit surprised by how difficult it became to change gear all of a sudden with no real explaination...  

 

The only gear that really crunches is reverse

[Wmc]

Thanks for the responses, its great to have some feedback, even if that means some hard work on the car! 

[bmbmdmb]

Check for leaks on gear box housing. Have you checked the brake fluid level? My Fabia Vrs suffered this symptom when brake fluid level was too low due to concentric clutch cylinder leaking. The clutch pedal stuck at one point, making gear change difficult. I had to pull the pedal up by hand.

[Wmc]

I will try and bleed the system via the nipple on the slave cylinder tomorrow, i changed the brakes a few months ago, perhaps there is a little air in the system.  Fluid levels seem ok, but i will give it a try.  

 

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[TMB]

2 hours ago, Wmc said:

The only gear that really crunches is reverse

 

That's kinda suggestive of clutch to me.

[Wmc]

Any ideas on a part number for the clutch, there seem to be two types, different numbers of fingers seems to be the only difference...

[TMB]

The thing is that it could be a hydraulic problem rather than the clutch itself.

[Wmc]

I will definately exhaust the hydraulic fault finding first, i had problems with a slave cylinder on an older car (not skoda) that presented as clutch wear.

 

I would like it to be something simple and relatively cheap, just preparing for the worst ☺

[TMB]

If you could post the engine code we could give you the clucth part numbers. The code is on a sticker in the first page of your service book and on a duplicate sticker under the boot carpet.

 

Example...

 

 

 

 

Edited 28 April, 2019 by TMB

[Wmc]

FRA. ASY.

do you need the whole code?

[TMB]

No that's fine thanks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TMB]

Clutch plate 038 141 031 R

 

Pressure plate 038 141 026

 

Release bearing 02T 141 170 C

[Wmc]

Thank you very much thats great.

 

[TMB]

No probs

[Wmc]

Hi All,

So today i managed to get everything back together after changing out the clutch, one of the springs in the clutch plate had failed, leaving what looked like spring washers dancing around between the clutch pressure plate, clutch plate and the flywheel..  This is what caused the gear change problems.  The car is like new again so im very happy.

 

I have to say the SDI gearbox is fairly easy to remove, a little more difficult to replace but not that bad and that was without any special lifting gear, just axle stands a trolley jack and some bits of 4x4 fence post material.

 

Thanks again for all of your suggestions and assistance i really appreciate it.