Greetings, comrades. I'm facing a really annoying problem with my car. Ever the more annoying considering I just had the gearbox serviced and the clutch replaced... Anyway, as the title says - my car for whatever reason randomly stops going into gear. Into any gear. It's only happened twice so far (the problem occured literally just now), both times after a bit of spirited driving. I push the clutch all the way in, and the gearshift refuses to get out of neutral. I've also noticed a slight clunking noise coming from around the gearbox/clutch when I drop the clutch pedal in neutral. Which tells me that something is going on in there, as in this isn't a problem with the slave or master cylinder.

Both times this occured I'd let the car stand and idle for less than a minute - and all symptoms would completely disappear. As if nothing happened. And the clutch stops making that thumping noise in neutral even if I abruptly drop the pedal. As you can imagine, this is a bit of a concern to me. I really hope that this is a master/slave cylinder issue (which is unlikely), otherwise I'm inclined to think that it's the pressure plate and its self-adjusting mechanism. That would be a major bummer, I mean, I bought the damn thing new just recently, I've already had to remove the gearbox more times than necessary, and the prospect of removing it again is pretty frustrating.

Anyway, what do you guys make of this? What am I looking at? Hopefully it's some minor BS, I mean, the thought of taking the gearbox off is a bit painful after all I've been through with it recently. Thanks in advance.

 

I want to go with this being an issue with one of the cylinders, and I probably would be inclined to believe so, if not for that thumping noise upon release. That doesn't sound normal.

 

Have someone pump the clutch and observe the clutch fork travel at the slave cylinder. If I remember correctly, it should move about 2 inches.

 

I drove the car around today, and aside from a few initial hiccups is seems to be fine. I reckon it's the master cylinder. I kind of gave it a bit of thought to narrow out the possibilities, and if something broke inside (clutch or gearbox related, or maybe related to the flywheel - I did go to single-mass recently with an Acura Legend disc and stock TL pressure plate) - I suppose it'll stay broken, the troubles won't just go away from standing still in idle, like what I'm experiencing. Apparently problems start after a bit of spirited driving do to the fact that the hydraulic system would probably need to generate more force to disengage the pressure plate, and that's where the hydraulic system stops performing its function like it should. Anyway, I've sourced a new master cylinder, gonna try installing it later today. Hopefully it'll cure my ailments.

 

Had a similar issue. It's likely the clutch master cyl. I recommend if you're going to replace the master cyl. also replace the clutch slave cylinder.

 

Afraid that's not an option. It's like a month waiting period to get one of those for me (I'm not from North America). Plus it's new as it is, I put in a new one last July when I swapped in the manual, so it should be ok.