Experts, what happened to my car? How much is the damage?

[Zeze]

I drive a stick- 2003 Mazda 6i, 130k~ miles.

About few months prior, the stick shift would start to 'flake out'. When I try to put it into gear, the stick wouldn't thrust despite the clutch being depressed fully. I had to re-clutch and re-shift numerous times until it finally engages.

It got worse on and on. One day I raged and forced my stick hard into the postion. I heard an audible snap coming from the bottom of my stick shift, then it went limp. I can't shift into first gear at all. I can however try to lug the engine and start from second gear (still undrivable).

What do you think the problem is? Did I break a gear box of sort? I hope it's not a big damage like ruining the transmission. The snap sounded 'superficial'.

How bad do you think the damage is? The car ran beautifully before this.

[edit]
The clutch was replaced two years prior, and it returns upon being released. So it may not be the clutch.

 

[nerp]

Could be a busted linkage.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Yeah, forcing something isn't the best idea. Probably busted the shift linkage.

 

[Zeze]

How does that repair go for?

 

[Zenmervolt]

Depends on what was causing the linkage to bind in the first place. Something was making it difficult to get into gear and that will need to get fixed too.

If the problem was a defect in the linkage, then that's about a $300 part, plus labor, but if there's a problem with the gearbox that was causing the difficulty getting into first gear, then you could be looking at a lot more to fix the issue.

ZV

 

[Rifter]

Like Zen just said this is totally one of those good news bad new situations.

Good news is it is just a busted linkage and will probably cost under $300 for a replacement and its fairly easy to swap out yourself or pay a mechanic its a under 1 hour job.

Bad news is the linkage was probably not the cause of the original issue its probably something internal inside the trans and will need to be removed from the vehicle so it can be found and fixed. And thats not going to be cheap unless you do the removal and reinstall of the trans yourself.

 

[jlee]

Linkage or shift fork.. guessing the original problem may have been a faulty clutch master or slave cylinder. Do you know if it got easier to shift if you pumped the clutch several times?

 

[Eureka]

First, the problem is a failed clutch master or slave cylinder. If you look at the clutch fluid reservoir, you should see black or no fluid. That's a $40 fix if you do your own labor or around $100-200 if you let someone else do it. I'm 90% sure that's the cause of your 'blockage'.

The snap was you forcing it into gear even though you had a failed cylinder. What the cylinder does is keep pressure up in order to separate the clutch plates... since you have no pressure, the clutch isn't fully separating, making it near impossible to get into gear (what you do by forcing it in is basically power shifting, or shifting without using your clutch). By forcing it into first, you broke the linkage.

 

[thedarkwolf]

Was it hard to get into all gears or just first? If it was all the gears then something in the hydraulics maybe bad.

 

[FuzzyDunlop]

Was it hard to get into all gears or just first? If it was all the gears then something in the hydraulics maybe bad.

This.
All gears = linkage broken from being forced. Original problem bad clutch hydraulics. Not too expensive.
Only first = transmission problems. Big money.

 

[Tsavo]

You probably snapped the shift cable or more likely, the plastic guide at the end of it. Cable goes bad, making shifting hard to do.

Fix is $500ish for new shift cable + install.

 

[amdhunter]

Could be a busted linkage.

Yep. Happened to me. Shouldn't cost too much at all.