driving along, minding my business, i go to shift into second gear and the entire gearbox becomes useless...i'm able to put it into first and get into a parking lot, but once i took it out of first, i wasn't able to get it into any gear but fifth, and it's nearly impossible to go anywhere starting out in fifth gear

tow truck guy said he used to work at a saturn dealership and that it's a pretty frequent problem on the s-series that the nylon ball at one end of the shifter cable gets destroyed from "over eager" shifting...does this sound realistic?

i, quite obviously, know nothing about car mechanics, but if the general consensus is that it's this cable instead of my entire transmission, it will ease my troubled mind...as mentioned before,

7/29/2006 9:53:47 PM

does the shifter still feel like its doing something or.....????

7/29/2006 10:04:50 PM

yeah...the springy-ness is still there, and it will still go forward and back (i'm assuming fifth and reverse positions), but you can't move it left and right, and it won't lock in anything but the fifth gear...it feels, i don't know...SMOOTH instead of like it's connecting with something

7/29/2006 10:20:13 PM

Ricky...I've been kinda slammed, but there's a chance that I can look at it tomorrow evening. I'll give you a call in the AM.

Oh, and I'd bet on cable too. I don't think it's your transmission.

[Edited on July 29, 2006 at 11:08 PM. Reason : blahblahblah]

7/29/2006 11:08:24 PM

^ lol, it's no big deal...i wasn't quite sure where to tow it (i couldn't leave it in the parking lot), so i had it towed to durham to the transmission guys my parents have used once or twice...i would rather have left it in raleigh

i don't trust successful operations because i always assume that they make their money by lying and screwing over people...this is an unfair assumption, but still...

7/30/2006 12:01:19 AM

I have a 99 SL-1 that the EXACT same thing happened to a few years ago. Lucky for me it got stuck in 3rd so I could drive it to the dealership. I think the dealership charges about $400-$500 to fix it, and the part that causes it all is a $0.25 clip near the transmission I got a friend of mine to do it and I got one of the stainless steel clips to replace the OEM plastic one (that breaks too easily) and haven't had any trouble for over 60,000 miles.

http://www.saturnshifterbushing.blogspot.com
^Link for the steel clip

7/30/2006 8:49:35 AM

thanks for the links...i'm waiting to hear back from this place bright and early monday morning to find out what they say...i'm hoping this is the issue...if they think it's something else, i might very well have it towed back to raleigh (thank you, AAA) and have zxappeal take a look at it, as i know for a fact that he does awesome work

7/30/2006 1:24:00 PM

Whatkind of AAA memebership do you have?

7/30/2006 2:39:25 PM

gargs, you going to stalk him through his AAA membership?

7/30/2006 8:48:46 PM

i've learned that gargs is pretty much harmless aside from casual trolling...sometimes i pretend he doesn't exist, and sometimes i feed him because it amuses me

dmidkiff...again, thanks for the link...i actually went ahead and bought the replacement unit (the devlin plastic one that's slightly cheaper, but supposedly just as durable) and it's supposed to come on tuesday...apparently, this is a REALLY simple thing to fix, so i'm hoping i can do it myself

if not, dan should expect my call

7/30/2006 9:14:37 PM

you sound like a winner

7/30/2006 9:17:32 PM

Holla at a nigga if need be.

7/30/2006 10:14:50 PM

oh, i holla'd alright, i holla'd...dammit, i was really hoping it was just that bushing

8/4/2006 5:21:52 PM