[bobbie88]

well everytime i have gone to double island/frasier after hitting soft sand and big ruts/bottoming out, the gearbox starts to play up, really hard to select gears and now it is nearly impossible while car is running. i have to turn it off select gear and then turn it back on and take off again and then its basically impossible to select gears while engine spinning.
basically the clutch is not fully dis-engaging the gearbox making it hard. im not sure what is causing this to happen, but its only when on sand and hitting deep ruts at speed, or long distances with big ruts.
i have had a look undeneath and the crossmember under the gearbox is a little bent and about a 15mm split. not sure if it is contributing.
jsut wondering if anyone else has had simialr problem with there vitara and any idea what it could be doing.
cheers Craig

[joeblow]

'hitting sand and ruts at speed'.................is called a sand injected clutch.

[bobbie88]

but previuosly it use to go away soon after it happened but now it is there permantly.. sorry but can u explain ur reasoning more, u saying sand is getting into my clutch

[blingdup]

Dump the oil and replace.
Ive had the exact same thing happen in 2 different model cars and the customers forgot to mention they took them swimming.Both were full of water!
New oil cant hurt either way though!

[royce]

I'll put money on teh cable being rooted after having the same troubles, is it shit in heavy traffic too?

get underneath and youll see where the cable attaches to teh arm off the box, turn the nut on the end till there is jsut a bit of slack, if it still isnt right ditch the cable and get a new one, but jsut beware Suzisport will charge you $85 while anywhere else is $38 and genuine is $110 (and alst a week)

[bobbie88]

i think royce is on the money as i have dumped the oil in gearbox and tranfser case and engine and diffs proberly 2000ks ago if that. and the problem was there before and now again after oil changes, and is only a matter of when in soft sand, it seems to be only when the middle hump of 2 ruts is high and its hitting something that it buggers up

[royce]

its not the bumps its the engine bay getting hot and the cable going soft