Well all of a sudden my 5spd has lately been really hard to get through all the gears... I noticed I have a slow leak in my clutch fluid but the check engine light isn't on.

My problem is each gear (1-5,R) is really hard to get into and I have to JAM it into every one. When I put it in first (or reverse) to start moving, and let up the clutch, the car vibrates and shakes like crazy. I topped off the clutch fluid last night (it was between min and max when the problem popped up), but it's still as bad as ever!!!

This is driving me NUTS, can anyone help?? what might be the problem??

You wont get a CEL with a leak in clutch lines. Find where the leak is coming from and fix it. You are having a hard time getting into gears because you have air in your lines and it compresses when you press in the clutch thus not fully releasing the throw out bearing. In a nutshell you have air in lines.

After bleeding the clutch, swap out your tranny oil with 4 qts of Redline MTL and one quart of Lucas tranny lube. I'll send you the bill. Cold weather doesn't help either brother...I'm experiencing the same thing here in CT.

Since your transmission has synchronized gears, if you rev match exactly on shifting, the transmission will go into gear without much resistance. It is possible to shift without a clutch as long as you rev match each shift and keep the car moving.

If you have a slow leak, you can get rid of the problem temporarily by filling up the clutch master cylinder reservoir with brake fluid and bleeding the clutch line. Your problem will come back sooner or later, and you will have to add fluid and bleed again when you fix it. However, if the car is stuck somewhere you can at least get it home this way.

I had a problem with that once, not as bad as yours. I switched to a short shifter which made things alot more easier and a less pain the butt. if you want a good short shifter, check this site out, these guys had a better price than alot other places i checked out

http://autoaccessorystore.com/home.a..._id=&sec_name=

why would a short shifter make shifting easier? If anything the shifting is more knotchy

I had a similar problem, I found out that a flexline from master to slave cylinder had a leak in it, cost me $125 to fix at a shop labor included. If that is the case and you want to do-it-yourself check http://www.motorvate.ca/mvp.php/802

I want to drive it straight to the shop, so I tried to bleed the clutch hopefully getting out any bubbles.

Well after bleeding the clutch lines and filling it back up (with no bubbles) TWO times, I still am having no success... FYI I used the information from http://www.motorvate.ca/mvp.php/803

So I'm guessing there's a pretty big leak somewhere (master to slave cylinder or otherwise), to make bubbles in the line every time I try to move.

Any suggestions?? I'm stuck in a parking lot right now...