what happened to my gears??

Question

I was coming back from the cinema earlier tonight, and stopped at a roundabout, I pushed in the clutch fully to put it into 1st and it wouldnt go!, so I tried 2nd, wouldnt go, 3rd and 4th wouldnt too, it only went into

5th gear!!!,,,so I managed to get it around the roundabout in 5th! and drove for a while till traffic lights. At this point it would also go in 3rd and
4th but not 1st or 2nd. Anyway after sometime it would go into 1st and 2nd aswell and seemed ok till I just got home now.

Does anyone know what on earth was going on, or is something on its way out??

Thanks for any advice.

Car is a 96 Mazda 323f

Johannes · Accepted Answer

Similar experience in a Saab 9000. It turned out that it was fairly simple. There is a small rubber block in the FWD gear link, presumably to dampen the feeling of engine vibrations in the gear stick. That block had split, this prevented the transfer of turn motion into the first column, usually

1 & 2, but didn't affect the rest. Replacement of block was simple since it was outside the gearbox, but access was still fairly awkward under the car. I don't know the Mazda 323f, but it could be something similar.

Conor · Answer

Worn gear linkages? No oil in gearbox?

Willy Eckerslyke · Answer

Buggered engine mount?

Carl Bowman · Answer

Probably worth checking the gear linkage first - it's a fairly cheapfix on most cars AFAIK.Do you by any chance drive with your hand on the gearstick?

DervMan · Answer

It might be all sorts, from a duff clutch, broken engine mount, worn linkage or badly adjusted clutch.

what happened to my gears??

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