Vistance

I was driving around today, I have about 149k miles on my '03 Max 6 speed and the synchros are starting to go bad. Previous owner I think ran the car hard and slammed it through the gears. I can still shift smoothly if I just pause slightly before going into the next gear. Really seemed like 3rd, 5th, and 6th liked to grind more than the others.

Anyway, I was getting on the expressway started off from the light from a stop, I got on it a bit but didn't wind it out all the way - went to about 5000 rpm before going to 2nd. I nailed it up to about 6500 when shifting to 3rd and right as I went to move the stick, it felt like it did NOT want to go into third, almost like hitting a solid wall. Something felt very wrong as it did this, I wasn't sure if someone serious had just failed in my transmission. I tried putting it in 3rd again and it just wouldn't go. This seemed like it might have partially went into 3rd and kicked back out to neutral, but it didn't feel the same as the times that has happened before. I finally went to 4th and it was ok.

I got into 6th, and noticed it was very stiff and hard to put into gear. Clutch was fully engaged so that wasn't the issue. While driving home I tested it several times to be sure. When it's in 6th, it drives just fine - but as soon as I push the clutch in to go to any other gear I have to pull very hard to make it come out of 6th. Same if I try to put it into 6th, it's very hard to put into gear. There's no grinding noise, it's just really stiff and I have to apply way too much force to get it in and out of that gear. I've gone through all the gears smoothly since this happened, and 1st through 5th feel like they always did but 6th feels really messed up even with the car turned off just sitting in the driveway.

Any idea what this sounds like? I'm curious if the synchronizer gave out on 6th, this is my first manual car so I don't really know. I've only driven the car for about 2,500 miles since I bought it over a year ago so it's not as though I've ragged on it and caused this failure. I also notice if I just put it in neutral it now feels like I'm hitting something solid when I push the stick over to go into 5th/6th. It's still rubbery feeling when I pull to 1st/2nd but I never noticed that feeling before, it's almost like I'm hitting some piece of metal or something. Also worthy of note, there's no grinding going into 6th now - but that may be because it takes me longer to put it in gear. So long that my RPM drops to idle before I can get it into 6th.

Thinking of calling a transmission shop and asking what this sounds like, but thought I'd ask here if anyone has experienced this and could explain what happened or what is wrong.

shredda

Similar symptoms to what I was experiencing on my 6th gen. I needed a new clutch master/slave cylinder, clutch line and clutch kit with flywheel.

Vistance

Ouch, that's a lot of stuff. I guess what I'm not getting is why in the world it's only affecting one gear? Shouldn't those kinds of things affect every gear? From my understanding of the way a manual transmission is put together, something being wrong with either my 6th gear or the synchro for it seems most likely (Maybe the 6th gear has gotten so chewed up that now it doesn't want to go into gear smoothly anymore?). I'm fairly certain within the last 30k miles the clutch disc was replaced, not sure without looking through records. I actually have a clutch master cylinder though, but no idea what to look for when these parts go bad.

I had a brake booster that went bad in another car, and remember the feeling that when sitting stopped, the pedal sank to the floor and I had to stand on the brakes to stay stopped which is very distinctive of a bad brake booster. Just want to learn so I know what to look for.

Child_uv_KoRn

iTrader: (7)

I can't help you any, but on my 1st 6 speed I had the 3rd gear crunch and 6th did exactly as you described.

What did I do? I kept shoving it into 3rd and jamming it in and out of 6th. It fixed itself after awhile LOL.

DjHackStyle

Open ur hood and look at the linkage cables I bet something fell into the area of movement, happened to me in my jetta I lost 5th gear then I found a plastic hose clip fell on top of the transmission linkage and was preventing proper movement.

Vistance

Ok, so I pulled the boot off the shifter and looked and I don't really see anything wrong here. Sidenote, where can I get an OEM replacement for the shift ****? Mine is gross and really worn looking. I'd love an aftermarket one, but they lose the lockout for reverse don't they?

I can see a small amount of play with the metal rod that's moving the linkage on the right side of the shifter but I doubt this is causing the problem. Btw, 5th and 6th are a little stiff, but 6th is the really hard one to put it in to. I shifted it a bunch and one time it didn't want to go into first, but after I worked it a bit it was back to the way it was. I looked under the hood, I can see the piece moving for the linkage but I don't really see what else there is. Should I be looking at it from under the car or from above - I did the latter.

Thanks for the help so far, really hoping it could be something so simple as something that fell in the linkage but I don't see anything.

ateick

iTrader: (1)

When you pulled off the shifter boot in the car the selector linkage on the left control the side to side movement of the shifter. Make sure that is moving freely. It is adjustable and if it is off even slightly it will make 6 and especially R very difficult.
There is no substitute for the OEM **** imho.
Under the hood try removing or moving the intake so you can see the linkages moving freely on their pins.

DjHackStyle

I was talking about the linkage in the engine bay not inside the car.

Vistance

I did check whatever that piece was to the left, it seemed to be moving freely without any issues. I'll take a look under the hood today, I realized the airbox was in the way and didn't want to start on it last night.

A question since I'll be taking that out - where is the GAB writeup? The only link I found goes to a dead cardomain page. Is there no where the writeup still exists? I'd love to do that at the same time.