Hi all

I've got a 2005 MCC no super (sept 2004 delivery). Stock 5 speed (I think it was one of the first non-S getrag transmissions)

Just rolled over to 100k miles, and it's starting to feel its age.
The gearshifter no longer bounces back to center when in neutral, and the "slots" to get into gear were feeling like they'd moved a bit, so I decided to do a transmission oil change and linkage swap (along with the gearshift itself for good measure).
Replaced with MTF-94, and everything fit in nicely - easy work. Bentley manual was thoroughly consulted and it all seemed very straightforward. No magnet on the drain plug to consult, old oil was ugly but not cloudy.

Afterwards, the gearshift points wound up in slightly different spots front to back, which I attributed to slightly different lengths in the linkage, but the shifter doesn't hit against the hard stop in the gearshift, so I figured it went in OK.

First day driving a long distance, and while it gets into gear smoother and more or less feels a bit better, getting out of gear is a bit tough sometimes, in fact, a few times, it really didn't want to get out of gear for a long enough time to give me a bit of a startle. Most times, it feels completely normal though.

Can't pin it down exactly to what's causing it, but it seems like if I've been in that a gear for a little while, it is more likely to stick. 2nd and 3rd seem to be the worst, but I spend the most time in them.
It may also be a bit worse if I am popping out of gear while engine braking.
The precursor to not getting out of gear easily seems to be when pushing the clutch down, I feel a a subtle but odd bouncing feel thru the clutch pedal... maybe. Hard to keep track while driving and wondering if I'm about to have a problem.

Could the new tranny fluid be cause for different feel? Or maybe I misattributed the original issue entirely, perhaps a throw-out going or the clutch? I've got 75k on this clutch(!), and while it shows no signs of slipping when accelerating in any gear, that is a long time for a clutch in this car from what I hear.

It's time to decide if I should try to fix it up, potentially throwing a bunch of money at an ever moving target (lets replace the clutch! No better? Now the transmission! while in there, lets fix that leaky valve cover gasket!), or have it completely overhauled from the start (rebuilt tranny, new clutch, etc, etc), or head on over to the dealer for a new one and hope for a good trade-in value while it's still limping along...

Thoughts?

Thanks
Eric

 

Have you had any difficulty getting it into gear? I think you had a couple of problems going on at the same time. When you described your orginal problems I was thinking shift cables. And I do think they needed to be replaced, I'm thinking that your clutch master or slave cylinder is needing to be replaced. I'm hoping someone else will weigh in because I've never had any hydraulic clutch issues so I'm not an expert by any means.