fiesta gearbox problem

I'm a bit of an imposter on this group as my DIY car maintenance days are long since gone. However there may be someone out there who can advise me. Yesterday I was driving our X reg Fiesta when suddenly I was unable to get all the gears. There was no warning and no crunching sounds or anything like that. I stopped at some lights and when I pulled away I had all the gears again. Shortly after I couldn't go from 3rd to 2nd. I drove to the local Ford dealers who were very helpful. They put it on a ramp and said that the linkage was fine. They suggested that a small piece of metal was intermittently stopping the gear changing mechanism. They suggested an expensive gearbox strip-down. Today I have driven the car with no gear changing problems. Has anyone any experience of similar problems and can anyone give any advice? Many thanks to anyone who can help.

Reply to
kent
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If it happens again, does it go into gear with the engine off?

Reply to
Chris Bartram

When the engine is off you can force it into different gears and if you keep doing so it eases.

Reply to
kent

sounds like a clutch fault then

Reply to
Mrcheerful

I'll bet on the clutch sticking.

Reply to
Duncan Wood

But if I put my foot on the clutch and it was not disengaging, wouldn't I get loud crunching sounds when I attempted to change gear?

Reply to
kent

Check the brake and clutch fluid; the clutch fails to operate properly when it's low on fluid.

Reply to
DervMan

Depends how unkind you were feeling. I imagine by exerting a lot of force on the gearstick you could get it to crunch into gear. IME only a few cars have have syncromesh on reverse, that would probably crunch and engage if the clutch wasn't desengaging properly.

If the car has a hydraulic clutch, a leaky clutch cylinder could manifest itself as the symptoms you describe.

Reply to
Douglas Payne

An X reg fiesta will indeed have an hydraulic clutch.

Tony

Reply to
Tony Brett

Fluid level is fine. I drove the car again today (don't use it at weekends) and it behaved normally. A mystery ............... ! Thanks for the ideas. Maybe the suggestion that a slither of metal temporarily impeded movement was correct. Clearly not a very common fault!

Reply to
kent

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