Gear selection problem

[u04elw2]

Hey guys,

I'm new here but have had Peugeot's of various types on and off for about 10 years. I currently have a 207 SW, 58 plate. It's been a really good car until the 24th September when I was driving it to a roller derby game and the gears stopped working! It would go into neutral but when I tried to get it into gear it was not happy. No grinding noises or anything like that, just super stiff to push into any gear except third, which worked for a while and eventually it seized up too.

It got towed to a local guy who couldn't find the reason for it happening but did manage to loosen it all up again by spraying the linkages with WD40 equivalent stuff. This was great, the car worked fine until last week when it happened again, this time on a country road in the middle of nowhere. Managed to get it towed to the "local" Peugeot dealership (miles away from town btw) where they are now saying they think it might be the clutch and flywheel, estimating over £1000 to fix it. They haven't properly stripped it down to find out yet but I've told them not to for now as as soon as they do that, I'm liable for the cost of the repairs.

The guy before said it almost definitely wasn't the clutch and it was more likely the linkages causing the problem.

So I've told Peugeot head office and they're going to deal with it as when the problem first happened it was still in warranty and I don't currently have a spare £1000 lying about to pay for repairs!!

Does anyone have any suggestions for what this could be? I've read a lot about Peugeot having crap gearboxes and I really don't think a 3 year old car with 50,000miles on the clock should be needing a new clutch already? And if it is the linkages, how to I stop this from happening every few months?

Argh it's so frusutrating not having a car!! :|

[Gibbo]

I can't speak for your car or Pugs but I had a Punto with a gearstick that never returned to the centre when in neutral. I got some good spray grease and sprayed the linkages where they join in that rubber bush joining arrangement just before the gearbox (sorry I don't know the technical term) and the plastic "ball" bit at the base of the gearstick and the difference was amazing.

My dad also did it on his Micra and he also noticed a marked improvement.

[u04elw2]

Thanks for the reply, this sounds very similar to what the guy at the first garage did back in September, he said it just needed lubricated and loosened off. Hence I'm suspicious that Peugeot dealership are claiming it's a clutch problem - I've had clutches go in old cars before and that's always been grinding gears, funny feeling pedal etc. This is nothing like that, the clutch feels like it's engaging completely fine, it's just physically stiff to push into gear. Once in gear there is no crunching or grinding and the car drives normally (well, other than not being able to change gear!!)

Do you know how often you need to keep greasing your linkages? Mine were done in September and the problem came back last week so I'm wondering if there's some reason the grease is getting washed off or something? My car is missing a sump cover, could spray be getting up inside it and washing away the grease??

[u04elw2]

I take it noone else has any experience of this then?