Any - Gear Selectors

Honest John Back Room » Technical matters
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Sat 7 May 2011 09:45
Any - Gear Selectors - BrianTheLion

Yesterday I experienced something pretty scary. On my 52 plate Xsara Picasso I slowed down to a roundabout, changed down from 5th to 4th and my Gear selector had popped out of the ball joint! Thus making the car immediately undriveable.

This was the first time Id ever come across this type of issue and didnt know it existed until after the recovery man came out to fix it.

Having trawled the net to look for other similar stories I came across quite an alarming rate of this sort of failure on a various number of cars.

What Id like to know is has anyone came up with a diy fix to stop this from happening again? The Recovery man simply popped it back into the joint and its been fine since but Im quite concerned that the design of this component will mean the problem will keep reoccuring, and its something I wouldnt wish on anyone, especially driving at speed!

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Sat 7 May 2011 10:31
Any - Gear Selectors - Peter.N.

I had this happen on a Citroen XM fairly recently, my wife was driving it at the time and I wasn't well so she got the AA out, the mechanic did a temporary fix with a cable tie, I subsequently fitted a new rod as the joint was badly worn. This is the first time I have had this problem in about 15 years of XM ownership.

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Sat 7 May 2011 12:01
Any - Gear Selectors - Roly93

Ahh !! le Francaise good at sauces, fine couture and taking long holidays, but not so good on the robust engineering front !!

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Sat 7 May 2011 12:28
Any - Gear Selectors - Peter.N.

Oh I think their mechanics are pretty durable, or at least on earlier cars, I have one XM with nearly 300k on it and I sold a previous one at 292k but their electrics are rubbish and seem to be getting worse!

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Sat 7 May 2011 16:07
Any - Gear Selectors - Vitesse6

Ahh !! le Francaise good at sauces, fine couture and taking long holidays, but not so good on the robust engineering front !!

I wonder why they have a thriving motor manufacturing industry and we don't then?

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Sat 7 May 2011 15:20
Any - Gear Selectors - BrianTheLion

I had this happen on a Citroen XM fairly recently, my wife was driving it at the time and I wasn't well so she got the AA out, the mechanic did a temporary fix with a cable tie, I subsequently fitted a new rod as the joint was badly worn. This is the first time I have had this problem in about 15 years of XM ownership.

The recovery man that came out to me simply nipped the joint back together and its been fine since, I also took it to my local garage on the way back for a 2nd opinion and there was no play in the joint at all which has got me wondering what caused it in the first place!

With this type of problem is it a case of trial and error? You mentioned fitting a new rod, others have mentioned new cables, etc... and a time consuming job removing the exhaust, etc

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Sat 7 May 2011 15:38
Any - Gear Selectors - Peter.N.

The joint on mine was actually falling apart, there were indications that it had be bodged before I had it, but it lasted over 10k so must have been a good bodge!

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Sun 8 May 2011 17:08
Any - Gear Selectors - BrianTheLion

Do you know how easy it is for the components to be checked over? Ive noticed on my Picasso that the offending piece is quite a far stretch towards the bottom of the engine bay, below the air filter. Would a visible check be easy enough if the car was up on the ramps?

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