Trouble engaging first gear

[Chris197F1]

Hi guys, collected my 182 this afternoon and the drive home was fine. Pulled on to my street and did a 3 point turn at the end so I could pull up outside my house facing the correct way. So I put the car into reverse, reversed back and then selected first gear, applied some accelerator and to my surprise kept going back, popped in to neutral, selected first and it did the same!

In the end I had to set off in second just to be able to get going. Why is it selecting reverse without me even lifting the gearknob? I know first and reverse are next to each other but im quite confident I was selecting first gear.

After this little episode I jumped back in the car for another drive to see whats going on. Managed to select first with a bit of a struggle and it felt like it needed more revs to set off and felt like there wasnt any power there?? Best way to describe it would be by saying if I wanted to wheelspin for whatever reason.....I wouldnt have been able to.

Any help will be great as im quite gutted about this

 

[bloke]

linkage will need adjusting under the car

 

[Chris197F1]

Booked in at a friends garage on Friday to see whats going on, also going to have the exhaust looked over as it was sold as a standard system but its very loud so need to find out what make it is

 

[Chris197F1]

My mate just phoned to say he doesnt think its the gear linkage causing the issue. He thinks that it may be something to do with the gear lever. Apparently there should be some sort of plastic maybe that keeps the gear selection within the channel and holds it there. He said this may have snapped which would enable me to select reverse without lifting.

What do you guys think as he wanted me to ask before he digs deeper. Are there any common faults like this??

 

[Diagro]

Has he checked the linkage?
Have a look under the car, where it links there is a Bolt.
if you look carefully you will see if its loose, and also if you undo it and slide it back you will see a line of dirt that was in the open slit of one side.

Redo it back up with the slit in the right place. I had this problem when i messed with mine

 

[bloke]

it's a pretty basic set up on the clio, should take any competent mechanic five minutes to find out what's wrong.