aguill7

I have a 2001 Honda Accord DX 4 cylinder with manual transmission (160K+ miles). I can turn the engine on (which requires the clutch to be depressed) but when I press the clutch and attempt to shift gears, the shifter is unable to move into gear. I can jostle the shifter from side to side in neutral - the stick just will not move into the gears. Its like I'm not pressing the clutch but I am. The clutch works enough for me to turn the engine on though. Also, the clutch doesn't offer a whole lot of resistance when I press it. I only feel resistance when I'm about an inch away from fully depressing it. I can move into the gears when the engine is off. I checked the fluids and everything is good except the engine coolant is low. I noticed in the last couple of weeks when we've had cold fronts that its been difficult to get from park to first. Once I started driving and the car warmed up more though, I had no problem shifting gears. I never had that problem before the last few weeks.

Does anyone know why I can't shift gears with the engine on?!

Thanks!

EH3Civic

First, check your fluids one more time and make absolutely sure you have plenty of clutch fluid. If it is up at "max" look under your dashboard at where the clutch pedal attaches to the mastercylinder (at the very top of the clutch pedal). If there is a lot of liquid flowing out when you press the clutch, you need to replace it. If neither of these is the problem, you need to bleed your clutch lines to build that pressure back up. If the problem REoccurs after you've bled the clutch lines, refilled the clutch reservoir, and checked to make sure the master cylinder isn't bad, then it HAS to be either a bad line or a bad slave cylinder. I will bet you have low clutch fluid. Regardless, you will need to bleed the brakes to build up pressure.

edit: Just for your information for the future, the reason the car still starts is because when the clutch pedal is pressed down, you'll notice that a clutch safety switch is also pressed down towards the bottom of the clutch pedals travel. When you're checking the master cylinder, go ahead and give this a look to see what i'm talking about.

aguill7

Thanks for the suggestions...I will check out all that you have mentioned. My clutch fluid is not at the max line. Its a bit above the minimum line...so hopefully your bet is right and its the more simple fix of just adding more clutch fluid.

aguill7

For clarification - you are saying that even if it is just that the clutch fluid is too low, I have to bleed the brakes? I have no idea what bleed the brakes means...

craiger28

aguill7, what he means is you have a bleeder for the master cylinder for the clutch, which is on the slave cylinder. Here what I do, fill up your master cylinder for the clutch on the firewall near the brake master cylinder with brake fluid. Then have a friend pump the clutch pedal a few times. Then have a box end wrench on the bleeder valve on the slave cylinder that will be near the transmission on your car, turn it so you open the valve and some brake fluid should come shooting out, then quickly close it after you see the fluid spray out. It might be very black and dirty, no problem, this is what you are going to get rid of. Keep repeating this action over and over until your friend has good resistance on the pedal and you see nothing but clear brake fluid coming through when you open up the bleeder valve. VERY IMPORTANT! - Make sure you always have fluid in the clutch master cylinder before you open the bleeder valve up each time. You don't want air in the line. You can also attach a small hose to the bleeder valve and have it go to a clear bottle (I have used a baby food jar) then you wont have a bunch of fluid all over the place. Good Luck.

EH3Civic

Well, you can try adding some fluid, then pump the brakes until you feel pressure, but what has probably happened is that the fluid got low enough that it pulled the rest of it into the lines when you pushed the pedal, and along with it came some air, so now you have air in your lines. If this is the case, pressure won't build up enough, and you'll just have a "spongy" clutch pedal. You'll need another person to help you bleed the clutch if that is the case. You might want to look up a more in-depth article specifically on bleeding your clutch so you can get some decent descriptive pictures, but here is the idea...

1. Get a friend to help out.
2. Loosen clutch reservoir, fill it up. Keep it off or atleast loose.
3. Find a deep-well 8mm, 10mm, or 12mm (can't remember exactly) and ratchet
4. Have friend sit in driver seat and pump the clutch pedal.
5. Tell friend to push clutch pedal all the way down.
6. You must now loosen the clutch bleeder bolt on the SLAVE cylinder at the front of the transmission. You should hear and see it spit out some air. Tighten it up after it does. Tell friend to let off of pedal.
7. Repeat steps 4 through 6.

P_Adams

The clutch is not fully releasing; and this can be caused by two things.
1) Air in the clutch control system (as discussed here already) and
2) Defective Clutch Master Cylinder.
Just like the Brake Master Cylinder, the C/mc can suffer from travel loss when internal corrosion causes a condition called bypass. It is caused by delayed fluid replacement as spelled out in the maintaince schedule.
If the air purge proceedures prove unsuccessful, you'll be looking it the C/mc as the culprit.

P