Urgent Help Needed: 2005 Mazda RX8 won't go into gear!
 

Hi there, I'm new to the forum but not on the Australian version but it is quicker to get a response from you guys!

At the current moment I am sitting on the side of the motorway stuck!

What has happened: I've been driving my car around all morning/afternoon with no problems at all. I was on my way to a mates place and took the highway, as I was overtaking a car I noticed my car slipped into nuetral after being in 6th gear and I had to immediately pull over to avoid an accident.

My problem: clutch is in and won't go into any gear, almost feels like something is blocking me from doing so. It will go into first with some struggle though

All help would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers,
Matt from AUS :(

Can you get into gear with the car off?

When the car is off the exact same problem occurs, can only seem to find first gear (or what seems to be first gear)

That sucks... with the car off you should be able to get into any gear without the clutch pedal.
So that means there is nothing you can adjust (clutch wise) to help.
Not sure if you have tools handy, but you could remove the shifter just to see of there is something dislocated/broken/unusual with it.
Other than that though... you would be looking at something wrong inside the tranny itself.

Unfortunately I don't have any tools around me, I've just called the tow truck to come pick my car up :(

Can't believe my luck...I don't understand how it was driving fine and all of a sudden BAM game over!

Ah well, thanks for your help!

Sorry bud... let us know what the outcome is.

Will do, thanks for your help

Thanks captain obvious, I think everyone realised this in my FIRST post :icon_no2:

He was on the side of the road, cut him some slack.

Well if you put it in the correct forum you may have got a faster response numb nuts.:SHOCKED:

So what was the issue???

what does "I'm blind so I can't f-ing read!" have to do with "OMG THIS IS MY FIRST POST" ?

Seriously. Jesus.

doubt its a transmission problem
most likely its your master cylinder or broken clutch pedal.
check for any leaks from master cylinder as well as fluid level.

Care to explain...
I can remove my master cylinder and pedal and still get the transmission into gear.
How would these items prevent the OP from going into gear with the car off?

I'm pretty sure that the majority of the transmission's components are the same from series 1 to series 2. I don't think it would have made any difference where he posted it...

Huh ???

You're actually wrong. They're 2 completely different units

So ... results?

I've had a similar problem once.

Just rocked the car back and forth and it has worked ever since.

but here is my experience -
day 1: very "spirited" driving for 3 hours - no problems.
day 2 am: stopped for gas and problem came up when trying to leave.

Car started fine in neutral as usual. But when I tried to put it in gear - just made an audible continuous scraping noise and wouldn't go in.

With car off - shifted fine into gears; fluid levels ok.

My only non-professional clutch-related idea was "maybe needs more/less pedal freeplay since it sounds like it's not stopping a spinning component?"

Went down there and loosened a nut and played with the pedal/sensors/etc. and was able to get it to start shifting. Something is still off though, since some of my shifts (don't grind) don't go in smoothly.

Side note: my clutch pedal is leaning toward my brake pedal (I assume because of the way my foot sits) and I can fairly easily move it left/right about an inch; no cracks though.

If your clutch pedal swings side-to-side, you now officially have a broken clutch pedal. If you bring it to your nearest dealer, you may be able to qualify for a clutch pedal replacement. Search for it using the key word: "broken clutch pedal replacement" because there is a whole different discussion of it in the forum.