c5 Hard To Shift
Thread Starter
4th Gear
Joined: Jan 2025
Posts: 4
Likes: 1
c5 Hard To Shift
I have a ’99 6-speed with about 130k miles on it. I picked up the car about a year ago, and in that time I have done the clutch, rear main seal, pilot bushing, flywheel, throw-out bearing, slave cylinder, installed a Fidanza short-throw shifter, replaced the transmission fluid, and just flushed the clutch fluid today (it was extremely dirty, and I’ve been daily driving it like that). My issue is that whenever I drive the car, it is very difficult to shift into all gears. Sometimes it shifts into a gear just fine, and sometimes it is extremely difficult. I thought that the bad fluid could have been causing the clutch to not disengage properly, but it didn’t help at all. It is hard to shift with the car on or off, but it is definitely worse when moving. I’m not really sure what else it could be. I’ve seen some people talking about shifter linkage alignment, but I haven’t looked too deeply into it.
Any help or suggestions would be super appreciated.
Any help or suggestions would be super appreciated.
Thread Starter
4th Gear
Joined: Jan 2025
Posts: 4
Likes: 1
Race Director
Joined: Jan 2000
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From: Central TX
C5 of Year Finalist (appearance mods) 2019
Melting Slicks
Joined: Sep 2021
Posts: 2,555
Likes: 1,212
From: Temple Texas
I have a ’99 6-speed with about 130k miles on it. I picked up the car about a year ago, and in that time I have done the clutch, rear main seal, pilot bushing, flywheel, throw-out bearing, slave cylinder, installed a Fidanza short-throw shifter, replaced the transmission fluid, and just flushed the clutch fluid today (it was extremely dirty, and I’ve been daily driving it like that). My issue is that whenever I drive the car, it is very difficult to shift into all gears. Sometimes it shifts into a gear just fine, and sometimes it is extremely difficult. I thought that the bad fluid could have been causing the clutch to not disengage properly, but it didn’t help at all. It is hard to shift with the car on or off, but it is definitely worse when moving. I’m not really sure what else it could be. I’ve seen some people talking about shifter linkage alignment, but I haven’t looked too deeply into it.
@TMODcustoms builds and upgrades boxes and shifters. If I were changing I would consider their products.
Last edited by Dads2kconvertible; Dec 28, 2025 at 11:03 AM.
Thread Starter
4th Gear
Joined: Jan 2025
Posts: 4
Likes: 1
Are you saying you replaced the clutch slave cylinder and the clutch sometime in the last year and did not flush the clutch fluid at that time?
@TMODcustoms builds and upgrades boxes and shifters. If I were changing I would consider their products.
@TMODcustoms builds and upgrades boxes and shifters. If I were changing I would consider their products.
thank you for the advice ill definitely check them out.
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Melting Slicks
Joined: Sep 2021
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From: Temple Texas
yeah lol this was my first manual car and first time doing a job this big. when I went to bleed the new slave I bleed it until fluid came out so it worked fine but I assumed that the brake master cylinder and the slave shared the same reservoir (dumb assumption I know) so I thought the fluid was fine and didn't have any second thoughts.
If you installed a remote bleeder the job is much easier.
Instructor
Joined: Oct 2020
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Aside from what everyone else has already mentioned clutch not shimmed correctly and a transmission issue. You can try to do the old "anti venom mod" you just shim the detent spring/plug with some copper washers and it will reduce shifting effort. Without driving your car it's all just a guess.
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Moved to C5 Tech for more discussion.
Instructor
Joined: Aug 2025
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Given that you're currently having shifting problems I would be bleeding the system again, preferably with a different methodology.
If you installed a remote bleeder the job is much easier.
If you installed a remote bleeder the job is much easier.