I have a 2000 neon 5sp. It drive great untill I put it in to 5th gear and then it wont stay. I have to hold it in gear when I drive? What could my problem be?

 

transmission problem...thats what i think.... might have to replace it.......

 

don't replace your transmission, this could only be one of a couple things, first thing that pops to mind would be the 5th gear syncro is bad, in which case you need to take it to a shop to get it fixed, unless you know someone with the right tools and know how to tear the transmission apart. Second guess would be the shift linkage, but this would probably affect more than just one gear, its something to check out at least. let me know what you find out!

 

could the syncro cause a rattle when the car is cold? the noise goes away when I hit the clutch or if its in gear and it goes away completly after its driven.

 

what kind of noise is it? and when do you hear it? i know right now im trying to find and fix a noise im having with my neon. i had just bought my 96 neon last weekend and its been making a knocking noise somewhere in the motor, im thinking release bearing but im not sure yet. anyways i lost all my gears and it turned out to be 2 bushings, one on the transmission and one under the shifter, replaced those and all my gears work great but, unfortunately, still have the noise. best thing to do to find the noise is to jack it up, start it, and us a metal rod to listen thru while touching different parts of the motor and transmission.

 

The noise im gettin is coming from the transmission. its a rattle but it goes away when i press the clutch or drive and when the car is warmed up It goes away all together. I havn't lost any gears it just slips out of 5th sometimes but here lately its been doin it alot. I drove the car from seattle washington the Indianapolis Indiana like this and I wanted to kill myself lol. also i've noticed that the lights in my instrument cluster flicker when i'm driving. They don't shut off just dim rapidly. its real annoying at night!!! has anyone ever seen this problem before?

 

well if the car makes noise but goes away when you hit the clutch that could mean the clutch is going out.Now your 5th you'll definitally have to take it to a transmission shop.you wont need a whole new trani and it shouldn't be that much so have them take a look at it and get more than one quote if you can cause most people will try to rip you off with your situation.good luck man!!!

 

hey i had the same sound coming out of the tranmission and I solve it. what you need to do is to change the tranmission fluid and put atf +4 fluid that will solve your problem but now i have the same problem as you the 5th gear grinds ..

 

Make sure you check your shifter bushings. If they're worn out enough, then it won't go all the way into gear into the first place, and thus would just "pop back out". I had the same problem with 4th and I was missing two bushing all together. Replaced them and didn't have any more issues. So start there.

Like others said, it also might be your clutch. Change your transmission fluid out with ATF 4, and if money is no object use Royal Purple Syncromax, or RP ATF 4.

 

Your noise you hear when you first start your neon is a bad clutch throw out bearing, it will quiet down once warmed up and no it does not mean clutch is bad rather just the bearing that slides in and out that lets you operate the clutch. It will be annoying sometimes but no harm unless you hear it grinding all the time ? Otherwise no worries, my neon has done this for 100,000 miles and goes away after warmed up and the clutch still works great.

As far as the the 5th gear popping out of gear on the manual Neon transmission, this could mean worn or broken motor mounts, bobble strut torque damper is loose or broken on frame to tranny mount, and or manual shift linkages are loose or off adjustment.

For most situations it means you have a bad 5th gear bearing inside the transmission which allows it enough play to pop out of the shift indent fork and also could mean the shift synchro is worn out as well. You should pull out your manual transmission yourself if you can, and have a good shop rebuild the tranny. And It would be far cheaper to just have 5th gear components rebuilt rather than all the gears, if they function fine.

You should never put ATF transmission fluid in any manual transmission, Dodge recommends 80/90 manual tranny oil only in a manual tranny. ATF oil is only for Automatic transmissions only.Who in the World would suggest ATF in a manual tranny ???