Technical Car/Motor Issues > Ford Escort - 00 1.8 55 Van crunchy gear change from 2-3 Miscellaneous
Thread Author: adamf Replies: 21
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New Wed 5 May 10 07:24 
 Ford Escort - 00 1.8 55 Van crunchy gear change from 2-3 - adamf
Hi guys

Hope you can give me a bit of advice on this one. I am currently driving a Ford Escort 55 1.8D Van and the gear change between 2-3 is crunchy. If i ease the the change it wont crunch - i.e slightly longer than normal to change the gear - which i have got used to but if i am giving the car some power and changing the gears fairly quick then i get this crunch. It will occasionally happen from 1 - 2 as well.



Any Ideas?



Last edited by: adamf on Wed 5 May 10 at 07:25
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New Wed 5 May 10 08:57 
 Ford Escort - 00 1.8 55 Van crunchy gear change from 2-3 - Zero
Mileage?

HOws the clutch feel, does it feel like its dragging or not releasing properly? Checked the gearbox oil lately?
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New Wed 5 May 10 09:14 
 Ford Escort - 00 1.8 55 Van crunchy gear change from 2-3 - adamf
Hi,

The mileage is approx 43,000. The clutch does feel ok to me but the bite point is a little high.
I Have not checked the GB oil but i am going to replace the fluid at some point in the next month or so.
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New Wed 5 May 10 09:23 
 Ford Escort - 00 1.8 55 Van crunchy gear change from 2-3 - Zero
change it and see what its like after that.
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New Wed 5 May 10 13:01 
 Ford Escort - 00 1.8 55 Van crunchy gear change from 2-3 - jc2
There are different lubricants depending on type of g/box fitted.
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New Wed 5 May 10 13:15 
 Ford Escort - 00 1.8 55 Van crunchy gear change from 2-3 - adamf
I have emailed the local Ford Dealership to find out what oil it needs. Eurocarparts sell Trans oil for around £5 a litre so i will just make sure that it is suitable for my van.
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New Wed 5 May 10 14:05 
 Ford Escort - 00 1.8 55 Van crunchy gear change from 2-3 - jc2
If reverse is just blocked by a spring,it's an iB5;if it has a lift-up collar on the g/lever it's an MTX.
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New Wed 5 May 10 23:23 
 Ford Escort - 00 1.8 55 Van crunchy gear change from 2-3 - Bellboy
its probably got synthetic oil in the box on this year and it can weep out from the end so an oil check is a good idea
of course if youve not driven the van yourself from new its quite possible heavy handed sid has busted the thing
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New Wed 5 May 10 23:39 
 Ford Escort - 00 1.8 55 Van crunchy gear change from 2-3 - VxFan
>> The clutch does feel ok to me but the bite point is a little high.

I've driven 3 or 4 Escorts in my time and always thought the biting point was high. The van we used to have at work was even worse. There was an art to pulling away smoothly in it, but with your heel in the air instead of having some support on the carpet made it very difficult to do.

Has it always been high, or only recently?
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New Thu 6 May 10 06:26 
 Ford Escort - 00 1.8 55 Van crunchy gear change from 2-3 - adamf
I only recently prurchased the van from a relative so not sure if its always been high. (and i have almost mastered the art of pulling away smoothley - think it just one of those things!!)

The haynes manual and also my owners handbook recommend 75 / 90 transmission oil so i will purchase some of that and either change the fluid / top it up.
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New Thu 6 May 10 07:38 
 Ford Escort - 00 1.8 55 Van crunchy gear change from 2-3 - Fenlander
You'd be very lucky for this to be a clutch issue... it's so likely to be the gearbox. It's always worth changing the oil for a £5 but again that's probably not going to help.

Last car I had like this was a Xantia at 85K that behaved perfectly in all other gears but crunched into 5th unless you were so s l o w with the gearchange. As above wondered about the clutch, changed the oil but in the end had to replace the box.
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New Thu 6 May 10 07:48 
 Ford Escort - 00 1.8 55 Van crunchy gear change from 2-3 - adamf
I dont mind driving it the way it is but it is just a little bit annoying for me.
I have seen 2nd hand boxes going for around £150 plus a new cluth at £50 - £100 so at that cost it wont put me off having them replaced (as long as the labour charge isnt to much?!?)

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New Fri 7 May 10 09:40 
 Ford Escort - 00 1.8 55 Van crunchy gear change from 2-3 - adamf
I changed the Oil in the Gbox and things seem a little better so i think it may need furthur investigation at some point but ill leave that for the time being.

One thing that you may be able to answer for me. In my Haynes Manual and Owners handbook it says that the Transmission fluid capacity is approx 3 litres. When i drained the fluid approx only 2 litres came out. I then filled it back up with 2 litres as when i tried to get more in it just kept flowing back out.

Also on top of the gearbox (looking from above through the engine bay) there is a little black plastic box. When i remove the top off there is a tiny hole which i am assuming is to enable me to top up the fluid in the box - Is this correct?

The hole is very small so i will need to get a very small funnel but i managed to poke the engine oil dipstick in there about 3 inches?
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New Fri 7 May 10 10:55 
 Ford Escort - 00 1.8 55 Van crunchy gear change from 2-3 - VxFan
>> i drained the fluid approx only 2 litres came out. I then filled it back
>> up with 2 litres as when i tried to get more in it just kept
>> flowing back out.

You'll never get it all out, unless you strip the box down.
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New Fri 7 May 10 12:41 
 Ford Escort - 00 1.8 55 Van crunchy gear change from 2-3 - percy
As jc2 asked furher up, is it an IB5 or MTX box?
The MTX has a drain plug, the IB5 hasn't so is difficult to drain unless you pull out a driveshaft. They both have level plugs in the side of the box.
I think the small hole you have found in the top is a breather hole.
How did you drain the oil out?
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New Fri 7 May 10 14:08 
 Ford Escort - 00 1.8 55 Van crunchy gear change from 2-3 - adamf
Yes its a MTX box and it has 2 nuts in it - 1 to drain at the bottom of the box and another about 4 inches up to fill / check level
Last edited by: adamf on Fri 7 May 10 at 14:08
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New Fri 7 May 10 15:08 
 Ford Escort - 00 1.8 55 Van crunchy gear change from 2-3 - percy
Right. When I drained my '96 mondeo MTX box (at 50k) not every last drop came out. But I caught it, measured the volume and put the same amount of new Ford oil back in (up to the level hole). IIRC it didn't make a lot of difference to the gearchange, I changed the oil on web advice from hj.
The box always seemed strong but never particularly fast to change gear, but I did like the syncro on reverse!
My Focus has the IB5 box which generally seems a lot faster but baulks going into 3rd from 2nd and 4th though it does seem to depend on the ambient temperature and how warm the box is. Unless it becomes really bad then I guess that 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' is the way to go. Good luck!
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New Fri 7 May 10 17:26 
 Ford Escort - 00 1.8 55 Van crunchy gear change from 2-3 - adamf
Thanks percy your right about if it aint broke......

Many thanks to everyone for there advice.
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New Fri 7 May 10 17:35 
 Ford Escort - 00 1.8 55 Van crunchy gear change from 2-3 - R.P.
Double de-clutch make a difference ?
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New Fri 7 May 10 17:41 
 Ford Escort - 00 1.8 55 Van crunchy gear change from 2-3 - adamf
Yea a bit but I think that may because the time it takes to double clutch the revs may have matched - if that makes sense
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New Sun 23 May 10 23:40 
 Ford Escort - 00 1.8 55 Van crunchy gear change from 2-3 - Dave_
My Escort has the little black box on the top of the transmission and it's an IB5.

As was mentioned above, the MTX75 'box has a collar to lift before you engage reverse (like most Vauxhalls do). If there's no collar to lift, it will be an IB5. The other way to check is to see if reverse gear has synchromesh (i.e. if you can engage reverse whilst rolling forwards without it crunching - the MTX75 has synchromesh on reverse, the IB5 doesn't).

I'm only double-checking because the MTX75 manual transmission takes automatic transmission oil.
Last edited by: Dave_TD {P} on Sun 23 May 10 at 23:41
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New Mon 24 May 10 07:14 
 Ford Escort - 00 1.8 55 Van crunchy gear change from 2-3 - L'escargot
It sounds like wear on the synchromesh cones/rings. Just change gear in a leisurely fashion, move the gear lever slowly, and hesitate in the neutral position. Don't double declutch, as this can cause unnecessary wear on the synchromesh rings. tinyurl.com/33maqv9
www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A691030
wapedia.mobi/en/Manual_transmission#3.
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