Civic 01 LX does not want to get into gear
 

Hi there, I was looking on the threads and general "Googling" with no satisfactory results, these are the symptoms.

I took a trip to Mexico City (About 1000 mi) on my Civic 01 LX manual transmission, nothing happened, everything ok... then I parked the car per about two days.

When I tried to pull the car from the hotel to go to some place i drove for about 10 minutes, stop & go traffic, then on a red ligth when I pressed the clutch to get into 1st gear then I feel like I had a hit on the back (or if I was released the cluch quickly hitting the brake also). Right After I started the car and none of the speeds could be reached.

I was on the most famous known place for being dangerous in Mexico city, Tepito. So you will image how I felt about it, I was completely worried for my integrity (and my car's).

Finally We get a mechanic, we checked and Turned off the car would enter all the gears but not turned on, we checked and the slave was acting. So the "mechanic" convinced me that was the cluch set, he pulled the car to his shop starting with change in 1st gear and the tranny started slipping.

Long story short... about $230 dlls repair.

next day I went to the mechanic's place and the car was working marvelous, none problems whatsoever so we decided to get back on the highway. No problems until aguascalientes (about 5 hrs driving at ~80mph), when the car did the same thing again. I called the mechanic and it gave me all excuses except his job, he told me to refill the oil in the tranny. we took it to a mechanics and was ok.

That was when we checked on the shift cables mechanism and the bracket holding the cables was loose, all the screws almost out... we tighten and the car started to shift again great. I realized that the !@#$)!! mechanic didnt touch my cluch It was a FRAUD!!!! he placed like a spacers between the washers on the bushings, very unprofessional job, very dissapointed.

again, when I arrived to my beloved Juarez Mx everything fine until I parked the car for about 1 hr, the same %@)!@#$@$h1t then I started with the car on reverse gear it felt like a pop and then worked again. drove on stop&go traffic and no problems.

I searched in spanish threads and they say that the cluch got stuck because the water... but was not raining.

Do you have anything that I could check before remove the transmission and replace the clutch set???

Sorry for the tragic story but need to make it work, It's my wife's ride.

Thanks in advance!!!!

The clutch is hydraulic. If all the fluid leaks out, the clutch pedal will do nothing and it will be impossible to shift out of neutral with the engine running. This is the most common reason for the symptoms your car has, but there are others of course. Check the fluid first.

The fluid is in a small reservoir on the firewall in front of the clutch pedal (near the larger one in front of the brake pedal that holds brake fluid for the brakes.) If it is empty, refill with BRAKE FLUID of the type specified on the cap. Any other substance will cause severe damage.

It would be empty because of a leak. The common leak points are the master cylinder, inside the car where the rod from the clutch pedal goes in. It will run down the inside of the firewall and go under the carpet. Or the slave cylinder mounted on the front of the transmission could be leaking.]

If you have fluid, the master cylinder could be worn out and not producing the necessary pressure to move the slave cylinder. This tends to come on gradually. Often you can pump the pedal a couple of times then hold it down and quickly slam into gear. If that works, replace the master cylinder.

Thanks for the reply, I already checked the master cylinder and the slave... the Fluid level is ok, also checked on the side of the slave and it was acting... we removed the dust cover and the lever was moved all the way.

Anything else that can I check?? the bushings on the shifting mechanism could be the same? that was what the so-called mechanic touched back then.

thanks!