MX-3.com

Hi everyone,
I was driving my 1994 mx-3, 170k miles, manual transmission the other day and i went over a bump and heard a loud noise come from the car. I stopped at the light and too the car out of gear and put it in neutral, everything being fine so far. I tried putting it in 1st gar and it wont go in. it goes into every other gear fine. I put it in second gear and once i begin to take my foot off the gas it dies right away. It starts up fine and idles fine. With the clutch in and physically shifting into gear is fine but once the clutch is beginning to disengage it dies. No check engine light is on. The actual clutch pedal seems to be kind of flimsy when pushing it in. Tires more freely in neutral if this is relevant. Has fresh oil about a month ago, plugs and filters are fairly new also.

I googled this really quick and found some info on torque converters, torque converter clutch, and torque converter solenoid. I think these were on automatic transmissions though and i didnt know if manual cars had these. Anyway, i would appreciate it if anyone could give me some direction or information regarding this problem.

Thanks so much!

sounds like clutch/tranny problem

Clutch could of went, catastophic failure.

Today the car wont shift into 1st, 2nd, 4th, or reverse. It only goes into 3rd and 5th. Would this still be a clutch problem even though it goes into the 2 gears no problem? but the problem is when i let off the clutch? I kept researching last night and all i found was information on the torque converter or the transmission. Thanks for the replies so far!

tighten up your shift linkage first then freak out.lol

Same thing happened to me when I used to drive the old beater truck at work. Clutch plate was totally obliterated, and actually busted the clutch plate fork... replaced them, worked fine ever since.

ok, I just got a call from the shop and they said "it looks like the clutch just fell apart and the shifter is stuck in between two gears. It will be at least 3 hours of labor just to take the trans apart to get to the clutch to see if its fixable."

Any Ideas?!?!

Also i forgot to mention, the actual shifter fell out of the center consel. It kind of just hangs out there. It shifted fine before this happened but is there any way to get that to come back up to the original height? This is not a big deal, the least of my worries now.

Thanks again

Letters11 wrote:Also i forgot to mention, the actual shifter fell out of the center consel. It kind of just hangs out there.

You mean the return spring is busted? Or the shifter bearing?

And 3 hours sounds kinda lengthy... only took me and another guy 30 mins to get at the clutch of our old F-Super-Duty-POS.

Daninski wrote:Clutch could of went, catastophic failure.

Ok points for me. It's a common problem for our shifters to drop. you can buy a new one from the dealer or try reinstalling it with a two part rubber like Durathane 94

My shifter fell out of my car too, when I was on a 3 hour trek from my fiances house to mine. I thought my shifting column had gone out completely. I did a quick fix with duct tape and some super glue to hold it up there till I got home. Then once I got home, I took off the shifter boot, and pulled the stick all the way up through, and a rubber lip popped up through. I filled the lip with super glue, and pulled the lip over a thin metal ring. And it has held like a rock ever since, and that was almost 3 months ago. Havent gotten a new boot yet though....kinda looks like garbage, but its workin fine

PilotSmack89 wrote:

Letters11 wrote:And 3 hours sounds kinda lengthy... only took me and another guy 30 mins to get at the clutch of our old F-Super-Duty-POS.

Yea i thought so too, but i dont know if i want to pay the $275 just to see if its ok or not. I didnt know if anyone had the same problem and if i can check other things before ripping apart the engine!!!!! Thanks for the help.

maac0953 wrote:tighten up your shift linkage first then freak out.lol

is this a hard job to tackle? I have a chilton manual if its easy enough to handle. I can do some things so it shouldnt be too hard for me....im assuming..........thanks

Daninski wrote:

Daninski wrote:Clutch could of went, catastophic failure.

Ok points for me. It's a common problem for our shifters to drop. you can buy a new one from the dealer or try reinstalling it with a two part rubber like Durathane 94

I should have taken your word! Im assuming that the trans would still have to come apart? And how would i reinstall it with a 2 part rubber? Thank You

Are you on crack?

Do not take apart your transmission.

Wiggle your body under your car, and look where the shifter comes through the floor, over the exhaust pipe. If its hanging there all loose like a dork, fasten that back to the floor. Do not touch your transmission.

calm down ryan let someone else do the yelling. look man you know we have manuals for this car availible on the main page it will tell you how to do these things. im currently in a rut where i have to remove most of my front just to repair some minor things. and the manual is showing how to assemble and dessemble it.