Driving home from work today I went to pull off the highway and couldn't shift out of 6th. I drove a few miles fooling with it and running stop signs and red lights and finnaly got it out. The rest of the gears work fine but when I put it in 6th again I couldn't get it out. There are all kinds of threads out there about transmission problems, but I couldn't find a similar incident. I don't know what could have caused it due mostly to the fact that it is 6th gear. I don't abuse my car, and I'm not even sure how you could abuse top gear. Any advice, or ideas would be greatly appreciated. I would really appreciate anyone with a similar experience to reply.

 

I'm on this forum regularly and haven't seen a similar problem reported. But do a search for 6th gear to make sure.

My advice would be to stop the car the next time this happens and call the 800 number to have the car towed to a dealer on a roll back. This would definitely be a warranty item. Make sure that when the car is put onto and taken off the truck that the clutch is depressed so that the transmission remains stuck in 6th gear. Otherwise, the service people will not be able to verify the problem and will likely just shrug their shoulders and send you on your way.

 

I am actually afraid to drive my car because I know if I put it in 6th again I can't get it out. I did a search for 6th gear, and had a hard time finding anything relevant. Unfortunately being saturday night I won't be able to get a hold to the service department until monday. I'm just debating wether to tow it now, or on monday.

 

pcldetter, I'd get in your car bright and early Monday morning.

That way when it gets stuck in 6th gear, you can have it towed to the dealership (with it still in gear as Go48 mentioned).

They'll put you in a rental car and you'll be off about your day while they fix it under warranty.

 

Don't bother to have it towed if it is not stuck in gear. The service people will probably drive it and if they can't duplicate the problem, they will probably not do anything for you. They have to VERIFY a problem before they can fix it under warranty.

 

That's probably what I will do, I have a truck to drive to work @ 5 monday, so I'll call the dealer when they open. I'll have tomorrow to play with the car a little. One thing I'm going to do is have them save all parts so I can verify that all parts being replaced need to be replaced. I don't trust dealers anymore. I just wish I knew what the problem was.

 

It would be covered under warrenty, why car about the old parts, not like your paying for them?

 

I read the 14 pages of the transmission thread and it seems more than half of everyone was told their clutch was fried too, and that isn't covered under warranty.

 

I was one of those with the trans problem. I had the problem with the shifter suddenly go stiff, but it worked a little freer after a few miles. I all ready was having problems with grinding gears prior to that.
They fixed my transmission that time under warrenty, but I was told that was the last time.

 

Thats one of the things I don't understand. How can they say they will only fix it once unless they can prove abuse. There is no possible way that they can prove abuse on my car, simply because I have not abused it. Thats the main reason I want to see the parts is so they can't accuse me of causing the problem.

Alnielsen, how many miles ago was that, and have you had amy problems since?

 

That was about 3K miles ago, back in June. 2nd & 5th are starting to grind again. It was my hope that I would avoid Abbid's problems. I guess not.

 

Just an update. The service dep. called me around 1 and told me the tech got it out of 6th, took it for a drive and as soon as he hit 6th again it got stuck. They got permission from MNAO to gain access to the trans. I went to pick up my rental car (pimpin it it a gold station wagon) and got to take a look at where they were at with my car. They had the drive shaft and the exhaust off, and the gas tank was out. (just filled my tank too) The tech had already left so I couldn't ask what the oil looked like when he drained it. I'll try to update when I get more info.

 

Glad they were able to duplicate the problem. That is usually the big hurdle with an intermittent problem. Good luck!

 

Got my car back friday. It ended up being a cap holding a bearing connected to the output shaft. The tech suggested that it is usially caused by drivers who are aggressive off the line. Other than them telling me I should replace my clutch because the plate was worn (still 75% good when I looked at it) everything went very smooth.

Now for a theory. When people are having grinding problems in high rpm shifts to 2nd this could be a cause.

6th gear is in a seperate houseing behind the rest of the transmission. This cap that broke into 3 peices has a flaw in that 3 screws are on one side, and one screw is on the oposite side. This leaves about 50% of the cap weaker than the rest. If this cap is broken, in high tourque situations (such as a high rpm shift into 2nd) it could rub against the gear right behind the cap causing a grinding sound.