New owner: a couple of transmission issues

[Liam22]

Had the car a couple of weeks and done enough miles to get comfortable with it. No major problems but would like to know if my transmission issues are normal or not.

1. Difficult to select gear when cold. This is only just after starting the car when stone cold. Try to select 1st or reverse and it won't slot home. Needs patience and selection of other gears before 1st/rev will engage.

Once selected, the clutch bite point is mid-way up the pedal so I don't think it's clutch relayed. I have also bled the clutch slave but no improvement. Once moving, selecting other gears is no problem. If the car has a little heat in it then no problem on restarting.

2. Clutch pedal vibration. This is related to engine speed. Resting my foot gently on the clutch pedal at motorway speeds I can feel a vibration as if the pressure plate is out of balance.


Any info or advice on these issues would be much appreciated!

Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk

 

[CallorFold]

1. Difficult to select gear when cold. This is only just after starting the car when stone cold. Try to select 1st or reverse and it won't slot home. Needs patience and selection of other gears before 1st/rev will engage.

Once selected, the clutch bite point is mid-way up the pedal so I don't think it's clutch relayed. I have also bled the clutch slave but no improvement. Once moving, selecting other gears is no problem. If the car has a little heat in it then no problem on restarting.

2. Clutch pedal vibration. This is related to engine speed. Resting my foot gently on the clutch pedal at motorway speeds I can feel a vibration as if the pressure plate is out of balance.

1. Perfectly normal, Clio's can't handle cold starts for ****, unfortunately. A near perfect work-around for this, is to leave the car in gear when you park it up - it never seems as stiff to select 1st then. Another option is to change the gearbox oil, although that's slightly more preventative maintenance than fixing the cold start gear selection issue. Generally takes around 2mins of driving, taking it easy (sub 3K RPM) before the engine will rev more freely.

2. You should never rest your foot on the clutch full stop, can't say I've ever noticed this in my Clio though so cant help on that one

 

[Jimmy]

Hi Liam, welcome to the forum.

To answer your first point, this sounds quite normal. Mine can be the same from a cold start first thing in the morning. As long as it's selecting gears fine, with no crunches, when warm then you are ok. Patience is the way forward when they're cold!

As for the second one, hopefully someone with a bit more mechanical knowledge than me will be along soon to answer that

ETA: CallorFold beat me to it

 

[Mattb_197]

Drop the gearbox oil and put some fresh in there, not so much as a cure but it has helped some people on here smooth things out a little. I was going to suggest bleeding the clutch but you've already done that.

 

[Liam22]

Thanks for the replies!

Should have mentioned I have already changed the gearbox oil (Elf NFP). I do usually park with car in gear but didn't like pressing clutch and brake and the same time to start the car so I've stopped doing that... Will have to learn to leave the car parked in the gear I'm going to need next!

I'd be tempted to bleed the clutch again if it weren't such a total PITA, what with removing the battery and faffing about with the pull/push mechanism!

And yeah, the engine is lumpy and hesitant until there is some coolant temperature. I had thought about changing the coolant temperature sensor but it seems that they're all the same.

I'm not actually driving around with my foot resting on the clutch. I noticed this when changing gear in slow moving traffic and that was the best description I could come up with. Something is out of balance but it's not the flywheel. My next course of action will be some aggressive clutch slipping in case there are some deposits on the friction surface that is causing this. But I wanted to ask around before deliberately causing clutch wear.

 

[Legend@wheels]

You can lube under the battery it worth a try ive seen people that it helped them quite well

 

[CallorFold]

but didn't like pressing clutch and brake and the same time to start the car so I've stopped doing that...

For what it's worth, you can just press the clutch to start the car. Works in mine at least anyway. Screen says press brake to start, but pressing clutch on it's own also works

ETA: You could also get in the car, clutch down, knock it back into neutral, clutch up, brake, press start (just to save trying to press both pedals at the same time )

 

[cliovirgin]

Have you checked the gearbox mount ?

 

[Liam22]

For what it's worth, you can just press the clutch to start the car.

Why didn't I even try that?! My wife's Volvo needs the clutch depressed so it's been confusing us both when jumping between cars. Clutch all the way from now on

Have not checked the gearbox mount. What am I looking for?