Gear lever centering spring

[zebedee]

Does anyone have any experience of this failing?

Is the spring mechanism mounted in the lever or in the gearbox itself? How much is the job (and would it be covered by the warranty)?

It makes changing gear quickly pretty difficult!

[dragstar]

It's a common problem apparently.

no idea as to repairing, but this a perfect opportuniy to fit a Gear-linkage kit to shorten the throw and improve springy-ness, rather than fit another standard part.

its a very good mod.

Bruce ( ) fitted mine - www.med-reg.co.uk

[lenny nero]

It's normally the bell crank pivot on the gear box is either dried out of grease or it is done up to tight.

www.eliseparts.com/images/linkage_inst/4.jpg The red arrow is pointing to the pivot.

It normally needs re-greasing or new bushes. www.eliseparts.com/ can supply replacment's

>> Edited by lenny nero on Monday 12th January 12:19

[stoker]

My car has been into the dealer 3 times now, for the same problem - Gear lever failing to return to neutral.

It only happens when the car is hot - When cold it springs back as it should, but gets "sticky" when hot. I've been told this isn't a spring problem, and the garage have taken it apart and lubricated it several times now - Anyone else had the same problem? I'm wondering how many more times I have to take it in before I start demanding a new gear box or something...

Stoker.

[jfrf]

yeah my 18m old s2 does this
when cold its fine
after driving a bit it sticks badly
only started doing this recently

will take it to dealers next week to see if they can fix this under warranty. makes the car awful to drive

[stoker]

jfrf said:

yeah my 18m old s2 does this when cold its fine after driving a bit it sticks badly only started doing this recently will take it to dealers next week to see if they can fix this under warranty. makes the car awful to drive

JFRF - Did you get any joy from this? Today, my car went in for the 4th time in the last couple of months for this problem, and this time the dealer came back with "That's a feature of these cars - We have three on the forecourt, and they all do it when they're hot"...

Needless to say I'm not impressed, especially as this wasn't a feature for the first 5000 miles, and I'm now being told this isn't a warranty issue and if I want something adjusted I have to pay for it.



>> Edited by stoker to be a bit more polite

>> Edited by stoker on Wednesday 4th February 11:40

[jfrf]

mine went in last week

they have admitted it is a fault and had to order a new part for the gearbox.

this is being fitted late next week.
I will ask them again what this part is as ive forgot :S.

my car was fine for 16 month and 10k miles.
there is no way i could put up with this being permanent.its just dam awful!!

ill report back next week
note all this is being sorted under warranty

[stoker]

jfrf said:

mine went in last week they have admitted it is a fault and had to order a new part for the gearbox. this is being fitted late next week. I will ask them again what this part is as ive forgot :S. my car was fine for 16 month and 10k miles. there is no way i could put up with this being permanent.its just dam awful!! ill report back next week note all this is being sorted under warranty

Fantastic - That's just what I wanted to hear. I'm going back to the dealer on the 4th Feb where I'm meeting with an actual technician coming over from Lotus, where I'm supposed to convince him there really is a problem! If I can demonstrate that it's been done before and can name the part that would really help!

Stoker.

[jfrf]

apparently the new part im getting is a "gear selector link" which is placed on the cables

no idea what this is or if it wil fix it

guy at the dealer said he had another car with same problem although the replacement part was slighly different
anyways mines in for the job next thurs, so we'll soon see

[aromaT]

purlease. If a delar can't diagnose and fix this its embarassing.
The "springiness" comes from the gearbox. There are 3 places where the centering process can be lost

1) At the gearstick if the ball joint is dry / tight (rare)

2) AT the linkage - the ball joints used on the otriginal are shite and dry out even though they are in rubber boots. This may be what they are talkng about replacing. The linkage kit from Eliseparts does away with this and replaces with rose joints. Easily diagnosed by removing the linkage and feeling the joints.

3) The bell crank pivot (as mentioned above). Much more likely and often the trouble. Needs stripping down and the bushes ideally replacing with nylatron / urethane. They often need machining a bit to make them nice and loose. Then, with LOTS OF GREASE it needs rebuilding - AND NOT OVERTIGHTENING. the lock nut should be tight, but the pivot nice and loose.

The 3 things above are eaily sorted, easily spoted and cheap to fix.

cheers