Help! - Car stuck in 1st Gear

Quin_Dub

All , Expert advice needed.

Driving home last night, everything fine until I stopped at lights then moved off as normal then as I engaged the clutch and went to change gear,there was a clunk and the gear stick went loose. I pulled over and stopped. The gear stick now only moves forwards and backwards but moving it has no effect, it's always totally loose, just flopping back and forth. The car is stuck in 1st gear and drives normally such as it is , clutch engages properly etc. but car stays in 1st.

I nursed it back the 4 miles to my house at 15 mph.

Car is a 2001 Peugeot 307 2L Diesel manual with 150k miles on it ( only passed the NCT a month ago!)

What am I looking at here. Is it something relatively straightward like a linkage between the shifter stick and the gearbox or could it be worse???

Welcome any thoughts or suggestions.

Thanks.

GerardKeating

Kind of sounds like the clutch is gone

OldmanMondeo

Quin_Dub wrote: »

Is it something relatively straightward like a linkage between the shifter stick

Is probably your answer. At a guess the clutch cable is gone. Should be to expensive to fix.

Avns1s

Couldn't possibly be either the clutch or the clutch cable since the clutch is operating normally and either being gone wouldn't have any effect on the gear stick.

My money would be on the linkage. In theory, it could be the selectors in the gearbox which would be a big job but that would, in my opinion be unlikely.

Get the linkage looked at and take it from there. It shouldn't be a big nor an expensive job.

regress

Seems like it hasn't been your day, your month or even your year.

Quin_Dub

Avns1s wrote: »

Couldn't possibly be either the clutch or the clutch cable since the clutch is operating normally and either being gone wouldn't have any effect on the gear stick.

My money would be on the linkage. In theory, it could be the selectors in the gearbox which would be a big job but that would, in my opinion be unlikely.

Get the linkage looked at and take it from there. It shouldn't be a big nor an expensive job.

Thanks..hopefully it's that, really can't afford a big bill at the moment...

L-M

Quin_Dub wrote: »

All , Expert advice needed.

Driving home last night, everything fine until I stopped at lights then moved off as normal then as I engaged the clutch and went to change gear,there was a clunk and the gear stick went loose. I pulled over and stopped. The gear stick now only moves forwards and backwards but moving it has no effect, it's always totally loose, just flopping back and forth. The car is stuck in 1st gear and drives normally such as it is , clutch engages properly etc. but car stays in 1st.

I nursed it back the 4 miles to my house at 15 mph.

Car is a 2001 Peugeot 307 2L Diesel manual with 150k miles on it ( only passed the NCT a month ago!)

What am I looking at here. Is it something relatively straightward like a linkage between the shifter stick and the gearbox or could it be worse???

Welcome any thoughts or suggestions.

Thanks.

GerardKeating wrote: »

Kind of sounds like the clutch is gone

OldmanMondeo wrote: »

Is probably your answer. At a guess the clutch cable is gone. Should be to expensive to fix.

Do people even read before they give advice

Gael23

Im no expert but it sounds like the gear linkage cable has gone. A symptom is that the gearstick flops around like yours is. I think you would be looking at a sizeable bill if thats the case

Quin_Dub

ryanf1 wrote: »

Im no expert but it sounds like the gear linkage cable has gone. A symptom is that the gearstick flops around like yours is. I think you would be looking at a sizeable bill if thats the case

Just an update - Having just gotten the car back from the garage.

It was indeed the gear linkage cable - The cable connector had popped off at the gearbox end of things - It's a plastic ball & socket joint arrangement (plastic!!!!??? :eek:)

My mechanic was able to re-attach the existing cable which will do the job for now.

Apparently it's not an overly uncommon fault on Peugeot/Citroen cars.

If the repair job doesn't hold then a new set of linkage cables (have to buy them in pairs) costs €140 or so plus whatever labour is involved to installed etc.

skelliser

Quin_Dub wrote: »

It was indeed the gear linkage cable - The cable connector had popped off at the gearbox end of things - It's a plastic ball & socket joint arrangement (plastic!!!!??? :eek:)

.

And this is why french cars are **** and hence after 100k they begin to fall apart. Look on DD and you will see similar cars of 7/8 years old going for nothing.

They simply dont last compared to jap or german cars.

MidlandsM

Quin_Dub wrote: »

Apparently it's not an overly uncommon fault on Peugeot/Citroen cars.
.

yep, i had a berlingo van with this issue, a right pita iirc! :pac:

Quin_Dub

skelliser wrote: »

And this is why french cars are **** and hence after 100k they begin to fall apart. Look on DD and you will see similar cars of 7/8 years old going for nothing.

They simply dont last compared to jap or german cars.

Yeah - I'd tend to agree , whilst in general it's been decent for me until recently (I've put 100k on it over the last 6 years) , it's definitely time to move on to greener pastures...

L-M

Quin_Dub wrote: »

Yeah - I'd tend to agree , whilst in general it's been decent for me until recently (I've put 100k on it over the last 6 years) , it's definitely time to move on to greener pastures...

Further pastures aren't always greener! Drive it till it blows up, if something like that happened on a more modern car it wouldn't bit a simple "clip it back on job".