I was at a red light and my car was in neutral and got stuck (wouldn't go to first). My mechanic told me that it is the clutch and is going to cost $1,200 to replace. The guy at AutoZone said that it may not be the clutch and that it could be the neutral safety switch or the synchronizer. How can I tell if it's as simple as the neutral safety switch and not a full blown clutch?
2002 Hyundai Elantra
120,000 miles
I don't think the Neutral Safety Switch can jam a transmission, but the throw out bearing in the clutch can do this. I doubt it would be a sychro, but you never know. How many miles on the car/clutch?
A synchro issue would usually cause problems with one or two gears, not all of them. Does it go into gears easily with the engine switched off?
I've never come across a manual car with a neutral safety switch, but I doubt it would cause an issue with selecting a gear - a problem with that would be more likely to prevent you starting the engine (This is a common issue with some older cars that have a bypass wire fitted to manula versions, and a switch on automatics - the connections corrode over time and stop the engine from starting)
You don't specify where you are, and thus which currency you're in, but I would expect a clutch change to cost somewhere in the region of £3-400 / US$5-600 unless it is especially complicated.
How can I tell if it's as simple as the neutral safety switch and not a full blown clutch?
I would normally expect a neutral safety switch on a manual to prevent you from starting the engine, not getting into gear once the engine is running. This is the behavior that my car exhibits: if you don't have your clutch pedal pushed down, the car won't start.
So, if the car was already running, a bad switch doesn't sound like the culprit.
How did the car behave when you tried to engage first? Did the gears grind? Did the stick move at all?
How did the other gears sound? With a usable clutch mechanism, you should be able to engage top gear at a dead stop (although you won't be able to move, most likely).
If all the gears sound bad, I would be concerned about the clutch. If only first is bad, I would be worried about a gear or a synchro.
Final question: did this occur suddenly? Were you driving fine at one stop light and things were broken at the next light? If so, think back: was there a distinctive sound or symptom of the failure? A mechanical failure of this sort would likely have been very noticeable. An electrical fault could have been much more subtle.
Responding to the comments
When you say that you couldn't get out of gear, what do you mean? Does the stick move at all? Can you push the stick towards one of the gear gates? Do the gears grind when you do? Or is there silence?
If you can't move the stick at all, I would be concerned about the shift linkage.
While it may or may not be a bad clutch, I would definitely call around and get a few more estimates. I feel like $1200 USD is straight-up robbery for a job like this. My experience:
Given your car is a 4-cylinder with front wheel drive, I would expect a clutch job to be much closer to the 1st figure instead of 2x the second figure.
Incidentally, on the truck I had the same symptom where I could not shift while the engine was running, and basically had to drive it around in 2nd gear. Plus a lot of funny-smelling smoke had come out when it initially broke.
