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Gear box won't give gears when hot



I brought myself a 1995 Clio 16V about this time last year. Great little car although the clutch was mega heavy compare to my old 1.4 RT. But as it was good in every other way I lived with it.

After a month or so I was driving along and came to a junction. I put my foot on the clutch, there was a ping. Clutch Cabled Had snapped. We promptly change it but found that even with the pedal fully depressed the clutch still made partial contact so it wouldn’t go into gear. We then made up a spacer, a slotted piece of metal tube which we put between the gear box fork and the end piece of the cable. It then worked ok but if I was say stuck in traffic without air rushing though it began to go funny again as in even with the pedal depressed it wouldn’t give me a gear.

After a few months this problem eventually got less and less of an issue to the point where there wasn’t a problem. Then the clutch cable snapped…again. On inspection all of the rubbers had totally smoooshed flat so the cable was under incredible strain.

We changed this but only to find that we couldn’t get into gear at all. At the time we though it must be dodgy clutch springs. So I shoved it 3rd and drove to a clutch centre. They changed the clutch, said it was on its way out but wasn’t too badly worn. They also still had the same problem. They also said the clutch fork was bent which they changed. In the end they spaced it to get it to work.

After going to town today I had to do a bit of stopping and starting in traffic. It got so bad I couldn’t change gear and had to drive back in 2nd. I then managed to get it to hobble to work just. That evening when I finished about 6 hours later it worked pretty much fine. There is something obviously wrong to do with when its hot-hotter engine hotter temperatures of the last few weeks.

Its never had a gear box oil change either and I'm not sure of the level but I think it was checked at the last service.

Any ideas????
 
I bet you use a copy cat replacment cable not the ptoper original Renault one?
I've yet to find a decient copy cat cable there all useless junk, get a proper Renault on thats the source of all your problems.
The copy cat ones are cheaper but if you've had changed it for a proper one the problem would have gone away you wouldn't have needed a new clutch.
As you now know the clutch cable is under massive loads.
If you need to get it in gear at the moment turn the ignition off and stick it in first then start the car and my matching your revs you can drive round you'll cructh the gears a fair bit though you don't use the clutch cable.
 
J

Jim NM

I agree, you need a geniune Renault replacement cable, I had a similar experience when I owned my 5GTT wrong cable no gears. Also you will probably need an new pedal assembly if it's a similar set up to the 5GTT

You probably paid for a new clutch when there was no need. Have a look at you gear linkage too, that could also cause problems not being able to select a gear.
Once you are sure that all of the afore mentioned are ok, then it's got to be the box that's fooked.
 
Totally disagree with teh copycat cables comment, have had renault ones, GSF, HAlfords, and local motor facors (delphi i think), not had a problem with any of them, infact the Halfords one lasted longer than any of the others, including renualt ones.

As above i'd check the clutch pedal, its £23 for a pedal assemble from renault, and if yuou still ahve the old pedal assembly int ehre it will might it slightly lighter, the pedal has a rachet mechanism in teh top of it that automatically tensions the cable.

Also make sure you route the cable up over the top of the pedal, under the plastic clip, over and into the hodler, mate of mine replaced his own cable and didn't route it through teh littel plastic clip on top, and as a result crunched inot half the gears, or just wouldn't go in full stop
 
Also chekc the gearbox oil level, and if its only hot the oil might be an issue, iirc it has to be changed every 72k? or 96k?

Stick some decent box oil in there, 75w90 iirc but don't quote me on that
 
your all wrong! BTW I've had 2 genuine cable's and pedal!!!

I took the air box off to find this:

41574126.jpg

0786d327.jpg


Notice the rubber is flat as a pan cake. That would explain the hot engine bit. As adviced by Dan off ClubClio (might be on here too) I was going to space it. Took offf the cable to find the fork was all loose. It's totally fallen to bits. Bear in mind it was only chaged a few weeks ago. It doesn't look genuine mind you. The metal disc is a spacer put in by the clutch centre.
 


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