Manual shift not going into 1st, 2nd, reverse

[Racer X]

I was driving the Emira with my daughter this morning when, coming out of a light, the car didn’t want to go into second gear from first, made a grinding noise. I went into third and heard a “ping” noise outside of the car. After that, no more first, second or reverse gears available; the shifter won’t even go to the left. Had to make my way home in third and fourth. The car only has 930 miles on it- haven’t even finished breaking it in. It’s a Saturday, so my local dealership is closed.

I’m guessing that one of my shift cables disconnected. Has anyone had experience with this?

 

[Blackthought_]

I was driving the Emira with my daughter this morning when, coming out of a light, the car didn’t want to go into second gear from first, made a grinding noise. I went into third and heard a “ping” noise outside of the car. After that, no more first, second or reverse gears available; the shifter won’t even go to the left. Had to make my way home in third and fourth. The car only has 930 miles on it- haven’t even finished breaking it in. It’s a Saturday, so my local dealership is closed.

I’m guessing that one of my shift cables disconnected. Has anyone had experience with this?

Dang! This is the first time that I’m hearing about a cable potentially coming loose for only a few gears. I imagine that’s the ping noise you heard. Can you look around and see if anything looks obviously loose?

 

[DerTheDer]

Let me ask you this, did you have the ringing mechanical noise during acceleration for those 930 miles? That may be a warning sign. Def sounds like a shifting cable, you can look in the engine comp and view it to see.

 

[KAR120C]

Let me ask you this, did you have the ringing mechanical noise during acceleration for those 930 miles? That may be a warning sign. Def sounds like a shifting cable, you can look in the engine comp and view it to see.

If your crossgate cable is disconnected, you will be stuck in 3-4 as you noted. You'll not be able to use 5-6, 1-2 or reverse. However, a disconnected crossgate cable would be super easy to move left / right but nothing would happen in the gearbox.. The fact that you can't move it to the left is a bit of a mystery.

Can you confirm that it does not move to 5-6 either?

 

[Racer X]

Thanks for the responses!
I didn’t see anything obvious in the engine bay looking down onto the one cable that I can locate. I can select gears 3,4,5 and 6, but the stick will not move left of 3 and 4. I’ve attached a brief video to illustrate. I wonder if a shift fork bushing fell off the fork into the transmission? I broke a shift cable in my 911 once and had to get it home in 2nd gear. Don’t recall if prevented me from moving the shifter.

 

[MIGZ]

There is a plate on the mechanism, that sets adjustment for 1-2 seems that may have come loose an bound up.

 

[DerTheDer]

I hope you get it fixed and its easy.

 

[Kimmax]

At least you don't have to worry about money shifting?
I also had gear selector issues early on, however different from yours. For me the lever went too far up in first and was "stuck outside of the gate". Dealer could easily fix this and readjusted the cables while at it.
Best of luck!

 

[Racer X]

There is a plate on the mechanism, that sets adjustment for 1-2 seems that may have come loose a bound up.

It would be a relief if that turned out to be the issue and it could be rectified simply (and the issue didn’t repeat)!
I’ll be calling the local dealership tomorrow to get it flat-bedded over for a look.

 

[wuster]

whao... scary! Please keep us posted. I'm sure all of us want to be mentally prepared for something like this.

 

[Racer X]

I’ve been trying to get my car in to my local dealer (Lotus of Washington D.C.), but have not been able to speak to the Lotus service advisor yet this morning as nobody else there seems to understand that Lotus needs to have the car flatbedded to them. LoWDC is a new dealership, so I sure hope they have techs that know what they are doing.

I saw a person on the Lotus Talk forum had the same issue, but he never posted how it was resolved.

 

[Racer X]

Lotus of DC is backed up with service requests, so my car will likely not get in for service for potentially 2 weeks.

 

[Foxy87]

Damn that sucks. Welcome to lotus ownership I guess

 

[Porter]

Lotus of DC is backed up with service requests, so my car will likely not get in for service for potentially 2 weeks.

Keith (the service manager) told me they are taking in only 1 car a week for service, and they hope that to change once they hire a new tech sometime in June.

I have a couple of items for them to look at on my own vehicle, and it looks like at least a 6 week backlog before they could take in a non-emergency appointment.

 

[Racer X]

Keith (the service manager) told me they are taking in only 1 car a week for service, and they hope that to change once they hire a new tech sometime in June.

I have a couple of items for them to look at on my own vehicle, and it looks like at least a 6 week backlog before they could take in a non-emergency appointment.

I’m having it towed back to Lotus of North Jersey where I bought it. I know that they’ll get it in and looked at quickly, plus they have been in operation longer and have likely dealt with similar issues. Shame I have to send it far away, but I have confidence in Ray up there to see me through everything.

 

[Racer X]

My baby is tucked in for the ride back to NJ to get serviced

 

[Nova]

Good luck! Ray/Pete have been great to work with and they are one of the more experienced dealers on the east coast. Hope you get your car back soon!

 

[RichiEmira]

My baby is tucked in for the ride back to NJ to get serviced
View attachment 45089

So sorry to see this. Thank you for sharing your experience with the dealer network. I have the same concerns with the newer dealers. Do they have enough techs? Do the techs have enough experience? Can they complete repairs/service in a timely manner?

 

[Racer X]

Update:
Mechanic was able to get it into first, but now it won’t go into 5th or 6th. He got it into the shop and will investigate tomorrow. He seemed to think it’s something simple that let go and allowing the shifter to bind up.
More to come.

 

[Racer X]

Not much of an update:

The Lotus dealer can’t find anything wrong with the transmission or linkage as it now works fine for them (it’s been there three weeks with them pulling it in and out daily. Short of pulling the transmission itself, they don’t know why it had acted up.

Meanwhile, they’ve been waiting for the new diverters to come in for the AC resistor pack up front to get it installed while it’s there, as well as a software update. Unfortunately, the diverters were sent to Vegas and not NJ (their words), so they likely won’t be there until Friday. Ugh.

So far, half of my Lotus ownership experience has been having the car at the dealership for service.