Difficult to get into reverse gear

Pierre_the_Llittlebarski

Hello

Fiat Panda 2008 1.2 Dynamique with 155k on the clock with very little else gone wrong in all it's life, my wife has owned it from new.

The past 3 months it has been difficult to get into reverse gear, all other gears fine.

If the car engine is off, gearbox in neutral, yet I move the gear stick to the left towards first gear, without actually engaging any gear, it will spring back to neutral of it's own accord.
If I do the same but this time move the gearstick to the right, to the area of where I may find reverse, without actually engaging gear, then the gear stick will not spring back.

Wife tells me that it appears to engage reverse better once the car has been warmed up. I have driven it and do encounter problems but manage to overcome these.

Any ideas please as to what might be our problems. Gearbox? Clutch? Transmission Fluid? Although the clutch appears to be absolutely fine.

We don't want to spend a lot on a car that whilst it has been maintained, runs like a dream, is effectively valueless.

Our intentions are that we try to get this car through the next 2 years until we both retire. We do have access to another 2 cars, our main car and a summer one. The intentions that in 2 years time we buy a nearly new another car to share.


Thank you.

EdGasketTheSecond

Worn gear linkage; broken return spring.

Pierre_the_Llittlebarski

Thank you Ed. Whilst I am uncertain of costs, that sounds a lot less expense than a need for a new gearbox.

Mutton_Geoff

May also be the clutch. If it's not disconnecting fully, you can still engage forward gears because the syncromesh masks any rotation of the drive shaft whereas reverse gear almost never has synchro so will be hard to engage or crunch when selecting that gear. Many old cars also don't have synchro on first gear and would display the same symptom.


Any crunching engaging R or 1st?


Trying to put it in gear without the engine running is not much of an indicator as the gears need to be rotating to engage and disengage properly.

Pierre_the_Llittlebarski

Thank you Geoff. It appears that I will have to bite the bullet and pay for an analysis of the fault then see if it is worth fixing.


No, there is no crunching of gears whatsoever. Appreciate your help.

EdGasketTheSecond

You can try selecting first and then reverse and see if that helps.

Pierre_the_Llittlebarski

Thank you Ed. Despite me being nagged as it worries her (understandably), me offering her the main car permanently, she was adamant she wanted to drive her own car. Will try that later.