I had a similar issue on a car many many years ago. The clutch plate was warped slightly, when cold it was fine but when hot it distorted more and dragged slightly making gear engagement difficult or even impossible (especially at junctions). Lucky for me a warranty repair.

Edited by skidpan on 13/01/2015 at 14:40

If all the gears can be selected with the engine not running,then there is very likely to be a fault with the clutch or operating system.

hope I'm not too late with this. Its cheap to fix.

We had exactly the same symptoms on our 55 plate Fiesta. There is a bush in the gear selection mechanism, that is mounted on the front of the gearbox. This nylon bush expands when hot, when its got to that age it seems.

I just took the arm off, reamed out the bush (12mm dia seems to ring a bell) , and re-fitted. The car has been fine since (we are talking 155,000miles now).

You will find more details by searching this forum for the original post, its:-

Ford Fiesta St '56 - Stiff Gears when Warm - CousinElvin

Posted Tue 5th July 2011 at 11:13

Edited by 547HEW on 14/01/2015 at 15:37