car wont go into reverse

Updated: 09 Dec 2024

so yesterday my car wouldn’t go into reverse. by that i mean when i tried pushing the gear to the far left it was like there was a wall there and it couldn’t go any further. after 15 minutes it finally went into gear and reversing the car was fine, however when i tried again later on during the day the same problem happened. i drive a 2007 Vauxhall Astra, there is a problem with the acceleration which i am unsure if that could be the cause. any help will be appreciated, thanks

Comments

When it won’t go into reverse try lifting your clutch a bit and then doing it. Works for me

Maybe your clutch cylinder could’ve failed.. Is it only reverse gear that you couldn’t get into or other gears too?!

Is it a manual?

Volks67 - yes its a manual

s0z4f - no its only reverse gear, other gears are fine but sometimes when i drive (rarely) i will attempt to put it into second gear but it wont let me so i put it back into neutral then it will go into second gear

update - reverse is working fine now, but im not sure if its going to happen again. thank you all so much for your help

If it is not shifting normally double clutch shift and downshift, it’s the same in my truck. It sometimes helps to be rolling a little to help it go into gear or to take clutch out when not in gear give it a little gas then put back into gear

Does it over heat? We had a civic come in with the same problem, wouldn’t go in reverse and would over heat. We were all stumped about what it could of been. Oldest guy at the shop changed the order of the coil packs and it never had another problem