Lost 2nd, 4th and 6th gear - a problem and a fix

[srcholmes]

Dear All,

I was minding my own business when I didn't quite get a gear change right but it did slot into 6th gear on the motorway and I thought nothing of it. (S40 2.0 D)

Imagine my surprise when I came off the motorway 45 mins later, slowed down for the roundabout and tried to select 2nd gear - it wouldn't go in.

I manage to jam it into 3rd and then when accelerating away off the roundabout I went for 4th and it didn't go in there either.

I had lost 2nd, 4th and 6th.

Over the next 50 or so miles, I drove home using the remaining gears. I was occasionally able to select one of the gears but it didn't feel right and it was mostly miss rather than hit.

I assumed that something in the gear linkage had "popped out" or broken as I'm pretty sure you can't lose three gears inside a gearbox, in one go, and still drive!

So...
I wasted about an hour-and-a-half taking the waterfall console down and removing the centre console to get access to under the gear lever to see if something had popped out there. There are lots of good videos on YouTube to show you how - the Haynes manual was next to useless, with bad descriptions and photos that did not contain enough detail.

There was nothing wrong with things at the gear lever end, although it gets pretty grim down there if someone had spilt a coffee down there (or something)... bluurrrgh...

As a (very) amateur mechanic I was not expecting to be able to do much more. However I got my other half to waggle the gear stick (!) while I poked about in the engine bay to see what moved and where.

Actually, I could see stuff moving just under the pipe leading from the air intake / filter housing. So I undid the screws on the air box (they don't unscrew all the way, and the screws on the pipe clamps. I removed the pipe from the airbox and waggled the airbox until it came away. It is not actually attached and just sits in place with a (thick) rubber band. Once that was out of the way, I looked closely at where the gear selector cables are attached to the gear box. One of them had popped out of its 'holder' and was not fully held tight. I carefully slotted it back in place and BINGO!! All gears back and working!

Happy chap - hope this helps someone who's missing some gears ;o)

Steve

[Clan]

Originally Posted by srcholmes

Dear All,

I was minding my own business when I didn't quite get a gear change right but it did slot into 6th gear on the motorway and I thought nothing of it. (S40 2.0 D)

Imagine my surprise when I came off the motorway 45 mins later, slowed down for the roundabout and tried to select 2nd gear - it wouldn't go in.

I manage to jam it into 3rd and then when accelerating away off the roundabout I went for 4th and it didn't go in there either.

I had lost 2nd, 4th and 6th.

Over the next 50 or so miles, I drove home using the remaining gears. I was occasionally able to select one of the gears but it didn't feel right and it was mostly miss rather than hit.

I assumed that something in the gear linkage had "popped out" or broken as I'm pretty sure you can't lose three gears inside a gearbox, in one go, and still drive!

So...
I wasted about an hour-and-a-half taking the waterfall console down and removing the centre console to get access to under the gear lever to see if something had popped out there. There are lots of good videos on YouTube to show you how - the Haynes manual was next to useless, with bad descriptions and photos that did not contain enough detail.

There was nothing wrong with things at the gear lever end, although it gets pretty grim down there if someone had spilt a coffee down there (or something)... bluurrrgh...

As a (very) amateur mechanic I was not expecting to be able to do much more. However I got my other half to waggle the gear stick (!) while I poked about in the engine bay to see what moved and where.

Actually, I could see stuff moving just under the pipe leading from the air intake / filter housing. So I undid the screws on the air box (they don't unscrew all the way, and the screws on the pipe clamps. I removed the pipe from the airbox and waggled the airbox until it came away. It is not actually attached and just sits in place with a (thick) rubber band. Once that was out of the way, I looked closely at where the gear selector cables are attached to the gear box. One of them had popped out of its 'holder' and was not fully held tight. I carefully slotted it back in place and BINGO!! All gears back and working!

Happy chap - hope this helps someone who's missing some gears ;o)

Steve

was there anything down there fouling the mechanism which popped the ball joint off ?

[T5R92011]

I had this similar issue with a V6 Ford Cougar.

Gear linkage connector decided to split in half approx 1 junction away from my driveway, which was handy.

Volvo seem pretty strong on the manual gearbox front. My recently purchased V70 D5 has 429,000 miles on it and that has a little trouble shifting, but seemingly only because the gearbox torque mount is knackered.

If you suddenly put your foot down in 3rd, you hear a knock and can physically feel the gear stick move in your hand, but I will forgive it that due to the mileage.

[srcholmes]

Sorry, it was the linkage cover, or sheath, that had popped out of its folder. So the cable itself was still attached to the ball joint thingy, but the sheath had come away meaning that there was too much play to allow the gears to move properly.
Hope that makes sense.