My lady and I both have a 05 R53's but lately her gear shift will not come out of gear into neutral without a fight. Like I'm fully depressed on the clutch pedal and have to YANK it out!! Needless to say this worries me. Any suggestions as to what's causing this? my main suspect is the clutch not working properly...replace? ....bleed the system?....Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Justin

 

a synchro'd transmission should allow you to shift gears without clutch (if the engine is off... or if you don't like your mini) every standard I've ever driven could be pushed out of gear without depressing the clutch. Pulling up to a light, sometimes I'll just push the stick out of gear and coast.

You might have some gunk™ in the shift linkages.

 

This is a stretch, but check the upper hydrolic motor mount. I just replaced mine. If it's bad you'll see where oil has leaked out. My guess it that the engine had dropped so much lower that it was giving me problems shifting into first gear. Like I said though, a bit of a stretch.

 

I was aware you could push the stick out of gear without using the clutch but I thought that was only at about 1k RPM or like you said when slowing down at Lights. Ill check the motor mount see if that could be the issue but like I said it's not getting into gear that's the problem. It's getting it out. Thats where it gets stuck for a second.

 

When you have a chance, pull the airbox to expose the linkage. The grease in that area is exposed and it get's caked up.