1996 Saturn Station Wagon Car repair

MELANIEC1225

MEMBER
1996 SATURN STATION WAGON

Transmission problem
1996 Saturn Station Wagon 4 cyl Manual 147000 miles

At 104000 miles the clutch assembly on my Saturn station wagon was replaced. The car worked fine until yesterday when my husband was driving home from work and it was failing to shift. We checked the fluid for the clutch and then added some. The car will shift fine when the engine is off. When you turn the engine on the car is locked in whatever gear it was in when you started it up. All of the clutch components seem to be in working order. Does the system need to be bled? The gears grind when you try to shift with the engine running. Please advise as I am out of a job and we can't afford to take it to the dealer.

2 Replies

SATURNTECH9

MECHANIC
30,869 POSTS

It sounds like ur clutch isnt releasing all the way most common reason for that is a bad clutch master/clutch slave assembley. If u want to see if the clutch isnt releasing all the way u can put the car in gear and push the clutch in and see if it can be pushed if u can feel the engine still engauged then its not releasing all the way. Or u can do it on a slight hill just becarefull u dont have power brakes when the engine isnt running. When u got the new clutch do u remember if they replaced ur clutch master/slave cyclinder?Also another reason for the clutch not releasing when the clutch is pressed is a bad clutch pressure plate. Let me know.
Louie