So I started my car up this morning put it in neutral and pulled the clutch out and the car jerked forward like it was in gear.. Now I have trouble with first, reverse and neutral.. 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th seem fine, but my problem is first and reverse feel hard to get into like your not pushing the clutch right in then as you release it to take off at rolling speed the car loads up like you have the hand brake on.. When in reverse and just rolling back with the clutch in the car feels like it hits something and actually stops and jerks forward and when releasing the clutch in reverse will go backwards then start to drive forwards.. It's all sorts of messed up.. Guessing something's shagged but any suggestions?

Sounds like the clutch plate has partly disintegrated or the friction material has come loose from the metal central disc.
That's just a guess though - it needs looking at for sure. If it is not the clutch, it may be the selector forks.

Pull the gearbox off and check the clutch, if OK take the gearbox to a transmission shop for investigation.

Check your cables

How old is your clutch? Brand?

Eyeball the slave, does it have proper travel when the clutch pedal is pressed in?

Check the selector cables.

If all these seem fine, jack up the front on to stands and have a look through the inspection hole for any signs of your clutch sitting in the bottom of your bell housing.

How old is your clutch? Brand? Eyeball the slave, does it have proper travel when the clutch pedal is pressed in? Check the selector cables. If all these seem fine, jack up the front on to stands and have a look through the inspection hole for any signs of your clutch sitting in the bottom of your bell housing.

I'm watching this thread as my sons manual is a bit rough getting second gear occasionally.

Everybody mentions the selector cables, but I can't see any adjustments there? I've clean & greased the linkages at both ends of the cables.

Is all that can be done with regard to the cables?

As a guess I'm leaning towards it being the clutch.. I will inspect it this weekend when I get a chance.. And the clutch is about 4 years and 50,000kms old exedy.. The original lasted 250,000kms

I'm watching this thread as my sons manual is a bit rough getting second gear occasionally.

Everybody mentions the selector cables, but I can't see any adjustments there? I've clean & greased the linkages at both ends of the cables.

Is all that can be done with regard to the cables?

There's no adjustments per say but there is a retaining clip that presses each selector cable in to it's little housing. One of the ones on my wagon for instance is broken, so I had to patch it up with a couple of heavy duty cable ties just to hold the selector in place.


As a guess I'm leaning towards it being the clutch.. I will inspect it this weekend when I get a chance.. And the clutch is about 4 years and 50,000kms old exedy.. The original lasted 250,000kms

Hmmm, what brand? My exedy was just put in a couple of weeks before MMX (10-10-10) and it still grabs like crazy 65,000-70,000kms on. Depends how you treat it I guess?

I'm watching this thread as my sons manual is a bit rough getting second gear occasionally.

Everybody mentions the selector cables, but I can't see any adjustments there? I've clean & greased the linkages at both ends of the cables.

Is all that can be done with regard to the cables?

My second is a bit tight to get in at times, particularly when cold. I believe the synchro is a bit worn. 1st to 2nd synchro gets the biggest bashing. 3 years later and its maybe marginally worse...

So I started my car up this morning put it in neutral and pulled the clutch out and the car jerked forward like it was in gear

This suggests a gearbox/selector issue, not clutch. If the box is in neutral there should be no drive, regardless of the clutch's condition. First guess would be something amiss with the cables or selector mechanism.


When in reverse and just rolling back with the clutch in the car feels like it hits something and actually stops and jerks forward and when releasing the clutch in reverse will go backwards then start to drive forwards

This also suggests gearbox/selectors rather than clutch, like two gears are partially selected at the same time. If this is the case, clutch in or out won't make a lot of difference when rolling, the gears will load up regardless.

Potentially there's something wrong with the selector forks in the box but I'd eliminate everything upstream of this first (selector lever and linkages, cables, shifter etc.)

sounds like the free play may need adjusting under the dash