Noticed the wife's copen is getting quite hard to change gear at times. Clutch is operating well, but the gearbox feels stiff. There is a bit of slop on the linkages at the gearbox end but i'm assuming thats normal and in any case would have a different symptom, (more like stirring soup looking for a gear, and that's not the case here). The gear action and selection is fine, just very stiff to actually move the lever. I've changed the gearbox oil without any improvement, but tbh the old oil looked fairly clean and was at the correct level. Car is a 1.3 done about 50k miles. Any ideas?
Anything in this that might help? - I'm looking at the same problem with my Carver. It uses the Copen engine and transmission. Carvers have a cable operated change mechanism, operating a linkage and then, I think, a device possibly called a translator mounted on the gearbox. (example - see http://www.lotusespritworld.com/EGuides/ETechnical/Gearshift.html ). Does the actual Copen have this cable and translator set up? Or is it just a Carver adaptation? I'm being advised to change the cables - a big job. Cleaning and greasing the gearbox-end external linkage is a much easier job, that I've done before and got an improvement. Then there's the translator, that turns cable push and pull into gearchange movements, like this VW setup https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sheTKD03hmo The translator might be stiff.
Cheers. Turns out it is the linkage that's stiff but it's the one at the shifter end (it's hidden behind the exhaust cat). I think it will take a few soaks in oil to get it moving freely. Apparently a common problem?
