And suddenly, I can't shift into first with my '97 Saturn SL2.

[intheflow]

Kind of happened suddenly. I noticed some resistance driving into work this morning, then as I was driving home it was like I had to jam it into first. Just ended up starting from second for most of the hour-long commute home.

So I've come here to crowdsource: any idea what I might expect to pay for a clutch replacement on a '97 Saturn? It's been a good car to me, I've had it 3.5 years and it has a little over 295k miles on it. My last Saturn, a '96, blew its engine at 314k. I love these little reliable workhorses. But maybe at this point, I should look into just buying another one of this dying breed. What do you all think?

[NYC_SKP]

1. I'm not a Saturn owner, but I've changed out clutches and rebuilt a transmission once.

This sounds like a busted syncro gear more than a clutch or maybe I'm misunderstanding the symptoms.

Is there always resistance or just sometimes?

Is the problem that the gear grind or just resistance.

Shift linkages might need adjustment or lubrication or might have play and need new small parts, and/or the clutch might need adjustment. These are cheap and easy fixes.

Was it a gradual problem or did it occur all at once?

[intheflow]

3. I seems like it happened pretty suddenly.

It's an older car, and I've had my moment of "don't find it, grind it," but I've been driving stick for almost 30 years now. I had a clutch go out in one of my first cars, and I remember it being more gradual. I didn't notice anything, then went to visit my son a few weeks ago in another state & drove his new car around for a bit. When I returned to driving my car, I did notice shifting was harder, but his shift feels ridiculously loose to me so I I just figured it was my readjusting to driving my car. It really wasn't hard to shift, I didn't have to jam the stick into gear or anything, it moved smoothly through the gears. But today, after work, I had to jam it hard into first, so hard I jut gave up and drove starting from second.

[NYC_SKP]

4. Typically, we go into first gear only when we are at a full stop, from neutral.

If it was the clutch, there would be a grind because the the clutch is not disengaging from the transmission input shaft, that's an out of adjustment clutch. The other type of clutch failure is a slipping and/or burnt clutch and that means the engine will rev while the car doesn't get all the power.

So I don't think it's your clutch. Try testing how hard it is to shift through the gears with the clutch pedal depressed and the engine off.

If this is still hard then I suspect bad bushing, need to adjust the shift linkages. It might be cured by replacing the shifter, it's worth investigating before making a commitment to do something more expensive and extreme.

I looked around, try the youtube DIY vids"

[intheflow]

7. Thanks, Skip.

I will say it doesn't feel like I remember a bad clutch. I told my boyfriend it felt more like the shifter than the clutch (my rudimentary understanding of each relative to the other being "clutch on floor, shifter on stick.&quot Looking at this video, I could see this being the problem very easily. Thanks for the education!

[NYC_SKP]

9. You're welcome! As I said, and others, it could be the syncromesh gears but I'd check the linkage.

The shifter and linkage parts are more accessible.

I remember from rebuilding a 3 speed chevy transmission how the syncro gears work and understand how, if they are worn, it can make it hard to shift, but IIRC, there's usually some noise that comes with that, or at least you feel the grinding in through the shifter.

But I also know that if bushings and other parts are worn or loose in the shifting mechanism, this can definitely make shifting hard without any noise or vibration in the shifter knob.

I'm thinking shift linkage!

Let us know how it goes!

[Make7]

5. What happens if you shift into neutral and then into first?

My Dad used to have a Ford Escort where the synchro for 2nd gear was non-functional, but you could usually shift to neutral and then into 2nd okay. Just a thought...

[intheflow]

8. Yes, that's how I drove home tonight. n/t

[wharf rat]

6. same thing with mazda truck

my mazda truck did the same thing. first it was 3rd gear that i could shift into, then first as well. ended up being the synchronizer. in my case, it wasn't worth price to fix but i did sell it to a guy who owned a transmission shop and got some money out of it. but, that was before the youtube DIY videos.

[intheflow]

10. One of the things my bf and I are talking about is

if a $400-600 fix (best guesstimate among our combined internet crowdsourcing of many networks), it might be worth buying another car for $1200-$1500 with much less mileage. It would certainly be a much harder stretch to find the money but in terms of investment... this car has 296k+ miles on it. My last Saturn (same car, a year older) lasted until 314k when the engine blew. I drive an easy 100 miles a day commuting to work and back, and since I live in the middle of nowhere, maybe another 50 over the weekend just to buy food and clothes. That means if I'm lucky, I might get another year out of this car assuming nothing else goes wrong with it. We found the exact car, a year younger than mine, with 125k. It might just make sense to invest in that at this point. Can always probably sell my car for parts to help pay the difference anyway.

Forced choices and decisions!