Hey everyone

So I got my car back from my mates house (yay!) drives and feels alot better but then a pretty serious issue came along with regards to the shifter

(this was all with the car turned off) At first what would happen is you would push the shifter into first, and it would look like it was sitting in first gear, but it was actually in third. every other gear was okay.
Then I put it into third gear, and noticed there was some play with the side to side motion, i pushed it left with barely any force and it went into where first should be. Thats when things got messed up
I pulled it out of third and the first thing I noticed is that the neutral position now seems to be left and a bit down (nearly in second) and now I cant push the shifter over to the right where fifth and reverse as
next I put it into neutral and went into the engine bay and grabbed the actual selector on the gearbox (where the linkages attach too) and tried to move it left and right. It still wouldnt go to the right (where fifth and reverse are)

It drove fine the whole way home, but then when I got it in the garage it started to have these issues.

We recently did a motor out service, so my questions are could it be that the linkages have come loose? or could it be that the actual selectors in the gearbox have now selected two gears?

Got the guys who did the service coming round this afternoon but even they dont know what it could be

Thanks
 
-Eric 

Was the engine pulled out?  It might pay to check that they put the correct C-clips back over the shifter brackets on the gearbox - I've seen people miss these and then wonder why they can't pick gears.
 

There is also an aluminium square block on the gear selector lever that comes out of the gearbox at the linkage cables. These weardown overtime and can cause issues on gear selection. You can either rotate the block 90degrees, providing this hasn't already been done before (It should sit and slide nice and snug), otherwise replace this part.

Yes the engine was pulled out, I'll have a look when I get home. I don't think there was any parts left over

If there's still lots of free play I'd prob replace the square thingy, shifter bearings at the gearbox end and rosejoint connector at the shifter. There's DIY articles on this forum submitted by an awesome member

Just got a text from my mate, they have one c clip left over, their bringing it over tonight so hopefully it's just the missing c clip

LOL I WIN! :D

Haha well if it fixes the problem I might send you a present :P

Still....check the square thingy ;)
It could be a combination of both!

Okay so the mystery is solved! turns out it was the C clip that was missing. just checked it out and it works great now!

Also rotated that block, one side was a bit worn down so the shifting feels better

Thanks everyone!

So, what prize should I get Essdub? :P