Today, my EG Civic just decided to get stuck in third. It seriously sucks. I have no idea how this happened. When it is light out tomorrow, I'll visually inspect the linkage and transaxle.

But I am unsure to why this happened, could I have a stick, rock, Jimmy Hoffa or some form of foreign object caught in the linkage? Would an absence of MTF make it stuck in one gear? I can't even pull the shifter out of third with force.

Please fellow Honda-Techies, help me diagnose my problem so my car will ride again, or at least before I burn away the clutch trying to drive it in third.

 

you still cant pull it out of gear even with the motor off??

did you run over anything b4 it got stuck?
if so it might have bent your linkage

if not
could be a prossible jam internaly

 

check you clutch fluid,linkage, and oil in the tranny

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by h kid &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">check you clutch fluid,linkage, and oil in the tranny</TD></TR></TABLE>

even if his clutch fluid is low. he can still change gears with the clutch in or out

 

komat-No, the shifter cannot be taken out when the engine is off. It's stuck in there like super glue on skin.

h kid-I will have to wait until tommorow, it was too dark to do any of that today. It happened at around 7:30, so it got dark pretty quick.

I'll consult the Haynes Book of lies too, and see what their diagnostic chart may say.

 

even if the tranny is low on oil you can still be able to shift

but if you were very low on tranny oil and drove on it. thats another story which will cuase internal problems.

when light comes out

check the shift linkage for any damage first. if theres none, then check the tranny oil(open up the fill plug and stick your finger in it to see if theres any tranny oil it). if there is tranny oil in it. drain it to see if theres any metal shaving flowing out.

 

komat-Low tranny fluid would result in a grind or chatter, wouldn't it? It still runs the same as it always did, just only in one gear.

 

from what i read from here and there . if you low on tranny fluid it can pop you out of gear. probably can cause grinding problems too and what not

if its the tranny itself is messed up
they are cheap to replace
like $140ish for another one

 

There is so much misinformation here its not funny.

Yes a foreign object in your linkage could be causing your problem.

The tranny will NOT allow you to shift while engaged, simple fact. You should however be able to shift while the engine is off, but you said you haven't had time to do that.

As for the internal damage aka binding up somewhere yes not having oil in your tranny can cause something to bend from heat stress or something similar.

Unlike automatics manual trans don't "pop" out of gear from lack of oil, they will however melt the gears and other components from lack of lubrication tho.

Hope this helped clear some things up for you.

-Edit-
I missed the part where you said you couldent shift it while the engine is off, this is leading me to an internal malfunction or bound up linkage.

 

It would make a whinning noise more then anything.

 

Thanks, I may go out with a flashlight and see what i can do, unfortunately i can raise it up at the moment to really check it out.

 

You probably have something stuck in the linkage, its bent or messed up in some way, or your tranny is messed up internally.

How do you drive the car? Like speed racer or in no hurry?

 

Civic4less-Generally just in no hurry, I use it as my daily driver, the car is my only transportation from A to B.

 

IDK. that sucks..sorry..

bump for more help for you.

 

Update: Oh well, I guess it wasn't Jimmy Hoffa.
I put my car up on jacks today, and was finally able to check out the linkage. Right at where the linkage meets the transaxle, some rock had gotten jammed.

It was a pain in the *** to remove it, but once I got it out, it works as good as ever. Unfortunately, I noticed on of my CV boot has sheared off, so I'll have to take care of that soon.

It seems when ever one problem is fixed, another begins. That, and Murphy's law always applies to cars.