[talkingpebbles]

Hi all,

My Fiesta Sxi, which is 2 years old is having some trouble with the gear. The gear had become slightly hard and i gave the car for servicing a month back in Lathangi ford in Bangalore. The guys removed the gear box and claimed to have fixed the problem. I took the vehicle and went for a trip to kerala one fine morning and once i was in Mysore road i shifted to fifth gear! Viola! The gear got stuck there! What a great job! It was 6.30 in the morning! I called up the guys and they came after an hour and a half, checked it and said nothing could be done and the car has to be toed to the garage! Toeing service came after another hour and the car was toed to the garage which took another an hour and a half! Wow! And i had my wife and two little kids! After reaching the service center, they took another two hours to tell me that they had to open it up and find out what the issue was! I hired another car and went to Kerala for my holidays! The next day morning the person from the service centre called up and said it was a minor problem and that they had forgotten to tighten one screw and that it was all fixed now. I took the car after a week. The gear shift was not as smooth as it was earlier. Still it wasnt bad.

But now after almost a month, once the car is run for about 30 minutes, the gears are getting tight again. After almost an hour, it almost becomes impossible to move the gears and i have pain in my left hand due to it. I took the car to the service center again on last thursday and they promised to get it corrected. They called up in the evening and said it was all great. I took the car on Friday and even before reaching home the gears had gone tight again! I was frustrated. Called up the guys and gave a piece of my mind! Finally the manager came online and admitted that they didnt have in depth knowledge of the gear mechanism. But promised to look into it himself and they have taken the car today again.

Do anyone has any idea about what could be the problem? the gear shift becomes hard in all gears including the reverse gear. So i dont think it has anything to do with the clutch. Please let me know if any of you have any idea about what is happening. It looks like I will have to find an answer myself and help these guys to fix it. Would be great to hear from you guys!

thanks

[Swifty2008]

If the service center doesn't have enought knowledge on the internals, try changing the dealer and show it to another authorised dealer. Its a delicate thing and could affect other functions.

Mean while have you tried contacting Ford Customer Care?

[mithun]

Try changing the Gear bush. It's quite cheap.

[talkingpebbles]

thanks Guys for the comments. changing the dealer is scary as the only other dealer is Metro ford who is infamous for their service! Thats the reason i am still sticking on to these guys.

The work will be done under warranty. So the cost is not an issue here. But diagnosing the problem is the issue.

[Zappo]

Are you sure that the lubrication is not getting hampered due to a squeezed line? Check for that possibility. My surmise is that everytime they open things up the supply line gets kind of freed up and the car thereafter runs ok for a while. However with continuous working of the gears the same problem probably crops up after a while. One of the supply lines gets squeezed somewhere and that hardens up the gears once again.

[GTO - Touring]

Those idiots have so obviously messed up your gearbox!

Since the gearshift hardens only after driving for 30 minutes, the primary suspect is lubrication (as Zappo also noted). Check whether you have enough oil in your tranny, and if the quality of oil is as per Fords recommendations. I'd suggest you to get a fluid change. If that doesn't solve the problem (small possibility), it is definitely the linkages that you ought to get checked.

[humyum]

Originally Posted by mithun

Try changing the Gear bush. It's quite cheap.

+1 to that..Gear bush seems to be culprit or one of the mounting has become weak due to which the gear linkages are having a tough time moving freely.

[talkingpebbles]

Originally Posted by Zappo

Are you sure that the lubrication is not getting hampered due to a squeezed line? Check for that possibility. My surmise is that everytime they open things up the supply line gets kind of freed up and the car thereafter runs ok for a while. However with continuous working of the gears the same problem probably crops up after a while. One of the supply lines gets squeezed somewhere and that hardens up the gears once again.

Thanks a lot Zappo for that suggestion. i will communicate the same to the service center people. Called up today and they gave some lame excuse again. will call up later today to find out if they can at least diagnose the problem.

[talkingpebbles]

Originally Posted by GTO - Touring

Those idiots have so obviously messed up your gearbox!

Since the gearshift hardens only after driving for 30 minutes, the primary suspect is lubrication (as Zappo also noted). Check whether you have enough oil in your tranny, and if the quality of oil is as per Fords recommendations. I'd suggest you to get a fluid change. If that doesn't solve the problem (small possibility), it is definitely the linkages that you ought to get checked.

GTO, they did the lubrication and there was no change! I am waiting to see what they are going to say this time.

[talkingpebbles]

Originally Posted by humyum

+1 to that..Gear bush seems to be culprit or one of the mounting has become weak due to which the gear linkages are having a tough time moving freely.

If that is the issue, why is it very freely moving in the first 30 minutes and then slowly gets hard?

[vikram_d]

Looks like a clutch issue to me. My uncle's fiesta has this exact same problem and it was diagnosed as a weak clutch. I am using the car as it is for now and will get the clutch replaced at next service which is about a 1000kms away.

A small tip for you if the gear gets stuck again. Just try double clutching. It works on my uncle's fiesta.

[nikkibike]

Assuming that the quantity and spec of oil inside the gearbox is as per the recomendations, I think there is something that generates excessive heat in this case! Thermal expansion of parts cub be the culprit here... check out the positioning of all gears inside GB, checkout all GB bearings... checkout whether the gearbox is getting heated up by any object/reason. (like exhaust pipe touching GB / a damaged mounting / input-ouput shaft alignment issues etc etc)

[talkingpebbles]

Originally Posted by nikkibike

Assuming that the quantity and spec of oil inside the gearbox is as per the recomendations, I think there is something that generates excessive heat in this case! Thermal expansion of parts cub be the culprit here... check out the positioning of all gears inside GB, checkout all GB bearings... checkout whether the gearbox is getting heated up by any object/reason. (like exhaust pipe touching GB / a damaged mounting / input-ouput shaft alignment issues etc etc)

thank you Nikki. this sounds like French to me though. I will pass on the info to the service center manager. thanks again.

[talkingpebbles]

Originally Posted by vikram_d

Looks like a clutch issue to me. My uncle's fiesta has this exact same problem and it was diagnosed as a weak clutch. I am using the car as it is for now and will get the clutch replaced at next service which is about a 1000kms away.

A small tip for you if the gear gets stuck again. Just try double clutching. It works on my uncle's fiesta.

I read earlier too something like this. however it was told that if its a clutch issue, the reverse gear wont have any issue. But in my case, all the gears are getting hard. So I am not sure if that could be the problem. thanks.

[vikram_d]

Also have the clutch fluid checked. Since the Fiesta has a hydraulic clutch maybe that is having problems.