2002 Protege5 MT stuck in 4th gear

[Gospeed]

Hello all, this is my first post in this great forum. I did exhausting searching in this forum and found some great information but not for the exact problem I am having.

I was driving down the road at about 45mph in 4th gear and decided to push in the clutch and pop it into Neutral to coast to a stop at the light. After i put it up into Neutral and let off the clutch, it was still in gear. Luckily the light changes before I got slowed down too far as I could not get it out of 4th gear. When i push the Clutch pedal to the floor (still has normal pressure/fees) it will disengage the transmission, but the second i lift off the clutch it is stuck in 4th gear no matter where the position of the shifter.

I can sit in the car with it off and go through all the gears and hear it changing all the way up in the engine bay (read: the linkage is fine). I also watched the clutch arm work back and forth where it goes into the transmission on the front of the transmission. Looked like it had enough movement.

Please help me determine what is going wrong as I do not want to drop the transmission if I dont need to.

FYI, I did not abuse the thing whatsoever right before this happened, just tooling along in fourth gear.

Thanks in advance for any input.

 

[915_P5]

Clutch is gone maybe

 

[tweety2300]

So you can go through the gears while car is off. But when running even moving the shifter it won't change? Not possible

With the car off put it in reverse. If you move backwards you need to post a video of what it's actually doing

 

[Gospeed]

So you can go through the gears while car is off. But when running even moving the shifter it won't change? Not possible

With the car off put it in reverse. If you move backwards you need to post a video of what it's actually doing

Let me explain better. With the car off i can manually run through all of the gears and you can hear in the front of the transmission something "trying" to happen. Trying to put this out there to mull any thoughts of their being an external shift linkage issue. When the car is running, it is really difficult (if not impossible) with the clutch in to push it up into first, down into second, up into fifth, or down into reverse. Even with the shifter in "neutral" it will die the second i let the clutch out as it is stuck in fourth gear i believe.

I am not sure what you mean about putting it in reverse with it off and seeing if i move backwards. It will only roll if i have the clutch pushed in. No matter what gear i put it in when the car is off, it will not roll. Dont know how much more descriptive i can be.

 

[kms1990]

sounds like the shift fork may have busted on 4th and caused it to stick, instead of breaking like it would out of said gear and not going into that gear. if it were clutch related it would be all gears or more than one with issues, it sounds like internal transmission to me, more than likely a shift fork

 

[ScratchNSniff]

You need a new transmission...plain and simple...I know exactly what you are talking about as I have had 3 with the EXACT same issue over the years...not to mention just changed one out on Saturday that was stuck in 3rd...you can shift around or so it feels into different gears...clutch feels fine, however the tranny itself is completely stuck into 4th no matter what you do it will not come out of 4th...can still start and drive the car, but only in 4th...

 

[ScratchNSniff]

sounds like the shift fork may have busted on 4th and caused it to stick, instead of breaking like it would out of said gear and not going into that gear. if it were clutch related it would be all gears or more than one with issues, it sounds like internal transmission to me, more than likely a shift fork

EXACTLY what has happened...

 

[kms1990]

you can replace shift forks without a new tranny, but it can be almost as or more expensive.

 

[ScratchNSniff]

Precisely...unless you know what you are doing it is just much more cost effective to go ahead and put a new one in...and the swap is extremely easy as a beginner job...

 

[kms1990]

Precisely...unless you know what you are doing it is just much more cost effective to go ahead and put a new one in...and the swap is extremely easy as a beginner job...

yep, me, and a couple of (mobile mechanic, aka does this for a living, and i did pay money for his, and his brother's help)friends of mine did the clutch a few months back on mine, and it is basically the same thing because we actually almost had to pull out the whole tranny anyway, if you attempt you need 6 or more jack stands and various wrenches and sockets along with a few strong, car knowledgeable friends. check your rack and pinion and cv axles and go ahead and get it a new clutch while down there.

 

[agr99]

Sounds like your forks in the transmission are hung up.the bushings might not be bad though. Either the bushings for the shifting forks may be worn or stuck in that gear.

 

[agr99]

The reason I say that is. Forks dont move just one gear it could be 1&r and 2&4 and 5&3 thats just a example.but thats what it sounds like and with forks people can say no no its not that but forks get hung on a gear and nothing will move or either the bushing gets worn it could getbslop in there and get hung up

 

[StevieB]

I have a spare P5/protg transmission. PM me.

 

[Gospeed]

Thank you all for the information. I am sourcing another transmission as we speak.

StevieB - PM sent.

 

[kms1990]

Thank you all for the information. I am sourcing another transmission as we speak.

StevieB - PM sent.

keep us posted