I'm looking at a 2003 Protege5 stickshift for a work/beater and the seller say's the tranny is stuck in 3rd gear. The car has a little over 100,000 miles and the seller is asking $1,500 o.b.o. What kind of problem would I be looking at? That's all the info I have so far. Worth a shot?
stuck in gear with engine running only or the car won't come out of gear on or off?
does it physically feel like it's stuck in third or can you pull the shifter lever away but the trans is still stuck?
option 1 it could be the clutch
option 2 it could be the linkage
don't know p5 specific stuff but I'll try to think of more later
... 1st time I drove the family Plymouth horizon out on the abandoned flightline I broke the shift linkage while hunting for a gear... dad reached under and just popped it into the next gear (4th) and slowly drove it home...
so that would be the first place i'd look... after that i'm sure it gets much more sucky...
side note... if it was clutch i'd image it should be able to change gears with the engine off right?...
sorry no more help then that...
Best case scenario = shift cable, $100 for a new one
Worst case scenario = busted tranny, $500 for a used junkyard pullout
Both of these require your own labor. One is quick labor, the other one is a bit more involved.
Fletch1 wrote: I'm looking at a 2003 Protege5 stickshift for a work/beater and the seller say's the tranny is stuck in 3rd gear. The car has a little over 100,000 miles and the seller is asking $1,500 o.b.o. What kind of problem would I be looking at? That's all the info I have so far. Worth a shot?
Transmissions might as well be magic for all I know. But I'd want to drain the gear oil and see what it looks like. Only time I had a car stuck in gear was when I was 16. It had no gear oil in the box and something got broken, or stuck, or welded and that was the end of the poor old '74 Capri.
There is hope.
My current Impreza once, while jacked up by a front corner in 1st gear, got stuck in what seemed to be more than one forward gear at once... Felt like 3rd was engaged permanently. Clutch in and running, all was well. Try to clutch out in any gear including reverse, car strains forward as if in a high gear and stalls as if the ebrake was on. Would... Not... Move.
Had it towed to my brother in law's transmission shop. He got it on a lift, worked the gears around via the shifter a good bit, attempting to get the wheels to turn. Eventually got a big "pop" out of it, and it's been fine in the 20k mile interim.
The 100+yrs of tranny shop employee expertise present all agreed that they'd never seen anything like it, and that a new unit was in order if it happened again.
Best of luck with it. I'd assume a new gearbox is in order until proven otherwise.
If its physically jammed in gear, and youre unable to move the shifter, then IT MAY BE A BROKEN SYNCRO KEY. Ive heard protege5 transmissions of that era are a weak point and abuse can quickly result in damage, and also that they are not capable of holding too much additional HP over stock...so if that was a modded car or whipped like a borrowed mule, a tear down/replacement may be in order.
Broken shift fork.
Control selector plate.
To add to the list.
Only time I had a tranny that was stuck in gear it was due to a bent shift fork. Other things I can think of have already been mentioned: clutch, clutch master/slave/cable, shift linkage, tranny internals.
Thanks for the help. If the car is nice and can be had for $1,000, it may be worth it. I've never done transmission work so it may cost me alot to have someone else fix it. Then again, maybe I can teach myself and get some experience on a cheap car. What to do.
Had a Capri 4-speed that did this one because the linkages weren't adjusted at all properly and 3rd gear syncro was over-extended. Not sure how much you can adjust the shift mechanism on a Protege. If the car is otherwise pretty good I'd pick it up for a grand or so and see what could be done for no or low money.
Just a short story on a related topic. Got a '63 sprite years ago...cheap because it was stuck in gear. Towed it home, and the old man, being cooler than fonzie, gave the shifter a firm jab with the palm of his hand. It was fine until the day I sold it.
wheelsmithy wrote: Just a short story on a related topic. Got a '63 sprite years ago...cheap because it was stuck in gear. Towed it home, and the old man, being cooler than fonzie, gave the shifter a firm jab with the palm of his hand. It was fine until the day I sold it.
performing the fonz on stuck components is a genuinely good idea for a quick fix in most cases. lol
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