307 1.6 HDi stuck in gear

[RichardW]

Got in this morning, go to take it out of gear, and, er, no. Stuck solid Will start and drive (as long as you only want to go forwards in 1st ), but no sign of it wanting to come out. It was -4 this am, so it might just be a frozen cable, but that seems a but unlikely since it has not rained for a week, and the cables are not exposed, and get plenty of heating in normal use, so I suspect either a cable fault or internal gear box fault. It has always had a slight tendency to get 'lost' coming out of 5th, and I had noticed that this has been a bit worse in the last couple of weeks - which hints at a cable fault. At least it's due to be a *bit* warmer over the weekend, out with the spanners

[RichardW]

Freed off... can only assume it was frozen. Unlike the handbrake cable, this probably not too much of an issue, as there's plenty of heat coming from the engine to melt it!!

[jgra1]

good stuff Richard

[RichardW]

It was pretty cold here last night, still -4 at lunch time. I had to go out, was going to take mine, but thought, It's probably frozen in gear, which it was, so I defrosted SWMBOs instead. Set off and found that that was very stiff too - no problems left / right, but I could hardly move it forwards and back So looks like both have the same issue.... took mine out later; just over a mile in 1st was enough to free it off - have left it in second so the first mile in the morning is not so painful!! No idea if the end of the cable is accessible and if it would be receptive to the introduction of some non-freezing lubricant!

[RichardW]

-5 / -6 this morning.... 2 miles in 2nd before it freed off

It doesn't seem to be unknown from a search. New cables come as a set at a shade under £200 - so there must be scope for having a try to get some oil down it.

[flying clutchman]

I've had this fault on a few vehicles in cold spells, I don't know how they get on in places like Scandinavia. The main disadvantage of cable operated gearchange. But everybody uses them so must be a good idea? Or not! £200 is about the going rate for all makes, seems like a rip-off to me, but any cheap copies are a waste of time.