Quote Originally Posted by Lady's Human View Post
Manual transmission?

Could be a few things, but from cheap to expensive:


1)Nothing is really wrong, just a PITA manual (put up with one for years on an old car, 2-3 did the same thing yours is doing).

2) needs new tranny fluid (miles/km?) The Ford Contours (your Mondeo) were infamous for this, they had no fluid change for the tranny listed in the manual, but you get to be a PITA to shift until you changed the fluid.

3) shift forks or synchros, in which case my recommendation would be to live with it.
Cheers. My guess is that it's probably the latter! Transmission fluid ought to be OK - no problems noted at its last service, but I will give it another check. It's only done 13,700 miles despite its age and is a good little car in all other respects. I know that little hatchbacks haven't got the best gearboxes in the world - the mechanic told me the Aveo's is effectively salvaged from an old Daewoo model. 2.5 more years and (hopefully) finally having a salary will mean that it can find a nice new home with a learner driver and freak them out at traffic lights instead.

Quote Originally Posted by lizbud
Could be a clutch problem. Do you do a lot of city driving? Stop & go traffic?
Clutch is good I hope - it was replaced in 2011 shortly before I got it. I'm the only one who drives it and I don't think that I give the clutch a lot of whack. At the moment it has been doing a lot of nip-outs into town, and as I live in a commuter town for London it does have to deal with a lot of sluggish traffic. I would hope that it can cope with that, though - it's not exactly a car designed for long journeys either so it has to be good for something. It is a funny little machine, but I do like it, warts and all!