Hi:

My daughter called last night and indicates that when she tried to leave with her car that it apparently was stuck in gear, when she tried to slip the clutch to leave the engine bogged and died. She tried this several times, but luckily I don't think that she damaged anything.

A friend of hers thought that the car was stuck in two gears at the same time, he fiddled around with the "cables" and it operated OK. This morning when she tried to leave for work the same thing happened.

I am hoping that someone knows what I should look for, I take it that the clutch is cable operated and I haven't looked at the shifter type to see if this is cable operated etc.

Any help in pointing me in the right direction would be appreciated. Vehicle is 180,000 miles, no recent clutch or transmission work. Located in northern Ohio...temps have been in the teens overnight.

Thanks,

K

 

With the car off you should still be able to move it in/out of gear. Try pushing in the clutch and shifting with the car off. If it doesn't shift and is stuck in gear then start the car and if the car doesn't jump or jerk and it's still stuck in gear then you know that the clutch and clutch cable are working. Make sure your tranny fluid level is honda MTF and at the proper level, it could be your shift linkage froze too but you'd probably have to crawl under the car to figure that out... At least you can verify that the clutch is fine, if it is it almost sounds like water in one of the shift linkages binding up.... does it always happen or just once in a while? how did she eventually get it to move?

 

Sir:

I believe that her friend may have flipped or pushed the shift linkage ....the only time this has happened is after setting for an extended period during the day or overnight. I'll inspect the shift linkage and tranny level tonight. Is there a tolerance on clutch wear that I can check and is the clutch cable adjustable or of a self adjusting type.

Thanks for you feedback,

K