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My Megane sometimes doesn't like going into second, whether going up or down. Apart from the fact that its done 85k miles with the obvious possibility of wear in the synchro, does anyone have any ideas on what else might cause it? There doesn't seem to be a lot of gear lever slop, although there is a bit of play (I did buy a couple of bushes to put in the linkage last year but haven't got round to it yet).
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Is the clutch properly adjusted - or is it worn out, and coming in very close to the floor or the top of the travel? Clutch drag can cause it to crunch. Is the oil level in the box right? A change of oil at 85k will do no harm anyway! If it will slide in if you hold it gently against the snchro for a second or two, then it's probably a synchro problem, or low oil level. Learn how to double declutch! If it's a linkage problem, it should be possible to overcome this by careful positioning of the lever, but I would have expected there to be LOTS of play in the gearstick before this became a problem - I bought a ZX where there was about 3" of side to side slop, but it still changed gear OK, as long as you were in the right place - this was sorted by replacing the bushes at the bottom of the gear stick.
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RichardW
Is it illogical? It must be Citroen....
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I must admit I haven't tried double-declutching (but having learnt to drive in a Bedford van with no synchro on first....). I'll give it a whirl & see if that helps. The oil change is a good idea. To be honest it's more of a problem for my 18-year old son, as he has a pretty forthright approach to gearchanging - if it won't go, push it harder...
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'a pretty forthright approach to gearchanging'
Nicely put!
It reminds me of an aunt and uncle of mine. They both had the same approach to gearchanging oddly enough.....spirited revving, followed by a sudden drop of the clutch....then an odd 'grab and shove' action on the gear handle - as if it were red hot and had to be grasped for as short a time as possible....finally a sharp rise in the clutch pedal (there was no notion of 'bite' - it was either up or down!)
As I say, the strange thing was that they both drove in exactly the same way.
They lived in London for many years and I would visit them as a child for holidays from darkest Aberdeenshire. At that age I assumed that this style of driving had something to do with constant city driving - but I was equally aware that my parents adopted a far more leisurely approach - and assumed that the quiet road conditions up here made 'desperate gear changing' unnecessary.
As I grew up and learned to drive myself I came to realise that my aunt and uncle were simply insensitive to machinery of any kind!
The rather sad ending to this story is that my aunt at the age of 84 ended her driving career by driving up the back of a Peugeot 206 with her Metro - coming to rest with both nearside wheels on the roof of the pug and offside wheels still on the road - at a 45 degree angle!
She was unhurt - said the sun had blinded her and couldn't understand what all the fuss was about......!
Graeme
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Richard, just thought I'd reply to this post from a few weeks ago to confirm that I've had a change of gearbox oil and the whole change is much much better - still sticky going down to 2nd but greatly improved in every other respect, doesn't even crunch going into reverse now. I suspect it's just a worn synchro.
Thanks for your help.
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