Cavalier having trouble getting/going into any gear. Help please?

shiftynewb

Hello all,

First of all, I would like to state that I have never driven/owned a 5 speed until about a week ago when I bought a used '04 Cavalier 5 speed on CL. I was looking for quite a while before I decided to go with this cavalier. I got it for a great price with low miles, and everything seemed to be great on it; clean startup, no slips/pop-outs, clean shifting, etc.

So to get to my point, I'm on here because yesterday, the shifter was being a little stubborn going into first and I assumed it was because I had not ran it for a while and it needed to warm up. BUT, today I took it in to get a car alarm installed and the whole way there & back, the clutch didn't want to go into ANY gear without me putting what I call an "excessive" amount of force on the shifter. The clutch is great, still has a good amount of grab and tension but when the clutch is fully in, the shifter (?) will not go in first/second/third/etc. without me nearly forcing it. Now like I said, I don't know much about 5 speeds YET, so what I am asking is, is there possibly any fluids that I may be low on/need to check; any cheap/minor fix to this... Or is it going to be costly? I just got this car a week ago and it was running perfect, I've only maxed it out once, haven't done much hard driving to it and it's already giving me problems.
Thank you guys for your future help

• ShiftyNewb

gmguy18

Yo guy,
How do you know the clutch is in good shape? If not the clutch sounds like it could be the linkage/bushings. Have you checked those? This is where I would start.