04 4cyl manual won't engage in gear

[mandr0256]

I just started having this problem with my vue. I couldn't get it into gear when i started the car in the morning. I let it warm up (it was about 5 degrees) for a few minutes and it would shift after that. After work, it would not shift again when i first started the car, but after warming up and shoving it into gear, would shift. While driving that night, it seemed to stick in 5th gear and not want to shift down without pushing it into gear hard.

Any tips would be appreciated.

39,000 miles
04 4cyl FWD
Manual transmission

Thanks,

mandr0256

[ujm4ever]

You should be able to dig up several older threads on this subject. Here is my experience: On our 02 we brought it back 3 times for hard shifting into1st gear. The first 2 times they adjusted the cables and it helped somewhat. The third time my wife brought it in the dealer claimed there was nothing wrong with it. My wife argued with the service manager and showed the tech. They then replaced the shifting mechanism under warrantee and we have not had a problem in the 30k additional miles since. I would expect it to be a little stiff when cold but not like you are describing.

[OhioVueBoy]

This is exactly what mine was doing when my master cylinder was failing (as a result of a leaking slave cylinder). Get it looked at before it leaves you stranded.
~D.J.~

[mandr0256]

Well, I was taking it in to the dealership and the linkage broke, leaving me stranded. Ugh. Had it towed and am now waiting for the bad news. It is funny how my warranty expired 2800 miles ago.

Sorry about not searching the older threads, i didn't notice the search function, even though i looked for it.

thanks,

mandr0256

[mandr0256]

double post!

:(

[ujm4ever]

Well, I was taking it in to the dealership and the linkage broke, leaving me stranded. Ugh. Had it towed and am now waiting for the bad news. It is funny how my warranty expired 2800 miles ago.

Sorry about not searching the older threads, i didn't notice the search function, even though i looked for it.

thanks,

mandr0256

That's crap. 39K miles - these shifter assemblies should be lasting forever.

I don't know how much the parts are but according to the receipt I have for the warrantee work that replaced our "shifter assembly" the labor bill was 1.2 hours. - not too bad. Push back a little on the dealer - maybe they'll cut you some slack on the parts cost.

[runerx]

I had the linkage end snap off of mine at about 24K IIRC. I only had 1-3-5 gears. Fixed under warranty and used more gently now...

Dave:hothead:

[OhioVueBoy]

I had the linkage end snap off of mine at about 24K IIRC. I only had 1-3-5 gears. Fixed under warranty and used more gently now...

Dave:hothead:
I've never had a linkage problem myself, suprising considering how much I fought with it when I had the start of my master cylinder problems last year. I'm pretty gentle and deliberate with it normally, though - even on those runs to the redline ;)

~D.J.~

[SylenThunder]

I had the same think with mine.... they could never find the issue. then I had it in because a strut tower blew and they noticed some tans fluid leaking from the axle seals. So they put on new seals, no idea why they were leaking. About a month later it started leaking real bad again, and once again it was getting hard to put it into gear again. Turn out that the whole time the pinion shaft was not lined up and was sending metal shavings down the axle shaft and blowing out all the seals. Once it was all put back together it was great. They never could figure out why it would do something like that. Still hard to believe that a shaft the width of a pencil is what cranks those wheels around.