I bought my car used but for some reason...every once in a while when I try to shift into gear...it will get locked into the gear. Then, sometimes it will lock me out of shifting my car into gear. I can pull with all my might to try and get it out og gear...it won't budge!!!!The only way I can get my car out of gear.....or back into gear is to shut the car off.....pull and push on the shifter...until it eventually comes out of gear...or goes back into gear. It will usually get loose again after like 10 seconds of having the car OFF and pushing and pulling on the lever. It doesn't matter if I have the clutch pushed in or not.
Also, when it gets stuck in gear....while having the clutch in...the car will actually start to roll forward like an auto tranny car. When this happens.....with the cluttch pushed in....and it is still rolling forward on its own...if I push in the brake...the car will not stall out. It will come to a complete stop....rpms not affected. Then if I let off the brake pedal again...the car will start to drive forward again like an auto tranny car. While this is happening...if I release the clutch....it will grab where it normally does.

Any ideas??

I have already changed the clutch master and slave cylinder to see if this cures the problem. It did not.

Also, I was looking through the records for the car..and I did not see ANY record of him having the tranny fluid changed...EVER!!! Do you think this could be the problem?? The car has 157K miles on it. He also told me that the clutch is original. The clutch still grabs fine though...and I can still chirp second gear. It has NEVER slipped on me. Should I try adding more tranny fluid to it?? Do you think the tranny is bad?? Should I have Honda do the tranny flush on it??

Also, it doesn't happen all the time. Only once in a while. I am ALL out of ideas

 

#1. Have the transmission flushed and all the fluids replaced.

#2. Even with the clutch pedal out you should still be able to pull it out of gear. This leads me to believe it's beyond just a clutch issue.

#3. The "rolling" could be a lot of things. You need to go ahead and change out the clutch and pressure plate. That pressure plate and TO bearing might be sticking for some reason. You've already worked on the hydraulic sytem, go back over it and make sure it's 100% straight first. Any number of things could've broken, gotten hung etc inside that clutch system. Either way you look at it, something is causing the clutch to not disengage all the way. Now you need to get in there and find out what, and why.

#4. Check all the shift linkages going TO the transmission. Make sure they aren't getting hung on something. It also might be a shift fork or something linkage related INSIDE the transmission. Something that's loose or worn out that occasionally slips out of it's place.

#5. It's going to get worse over time. Your car has 157,000 miles... you knew going into it that you had some replacing to do. Hell, you're about 20,000 from needing a new timing belt and all the servicing again.

#6. My advice is not to modify the car for a little while. Save up some money and leave it set aside for when the things go bad. Cause it's the little things that are going to start going wrong now. The parts may not be expensive, but the labor might be. If a $2 dollar part goes bad, but it's in the middle of the motor, you are screwed. You just paid $600 on labor for a $2 part.

Either that, or get an H22A and tranny that's fresher and drop it in.

 

Hey man, thanks for the advice. I guess I have a big decision on my hands. I was actually letting my car sit until I found someone who was selling an H22 for a good price and that was close to me. I found a guy in NJ with a 96 H22 but he was making me wait too long so i told him to forget it. I lost trust in him.

My Prelude is my toy car and the main reason why I bought it was to use it for the track. When I bought it my intentions were to get an H22 swap off the bat. I just didn't know doing the JDM swap would be so expensive after is was all said and done. I got quoted $1295 JUST to swap in the motor into my car!!!

I guess I have several options to consider. Thanks for the advice. I REALLY appreciate it.


EDIT: Hopefully this will help to diagnosis but under normal driving....I can't get my car back into 1st gear unless I come to pretty much a complete stop.


Modified by AndyD at 6:48 PM 5/10/2003