Grinding when engaging gears & clutch won't pull away

[Monkey IQ]

Hi there,

Today my car broke down, was driving fine but when we stopped at traffic lights and then tried to put the car into gear it made a horrific grinding noise, the clutch was in and it feels like its going into gear but the gears aren't meshing. The car would not move forward, so we had to call the break down. The car is now standing on my curb outside the house.

[flash22]

Check the drive shafts and see if any of the boot are torn, it may have stripped the splines or snapped the shaft

is there any resistance in the clutch pedal ?

[Cyker]

Is it a 1.33 with 6-speed gearbox?

My Mk2 had the same engine+gearbox combo and had a similar problem where I lost the ability to go into any gear except 3rd.

Never found out why, but from a Wheeler Dealers episode with a different car (An Audi IIRC), I suspect one of the shift forks inside the gearbox had sheared off which prevented it from moving the gears. Only speculation, as I never got around to cracking open the gearbox to find out for sure (I don't have a impact wrench and no way was I going to hand-remove all the bolts just to satisfy my curiosity!); Replaced it with one from a welsh breaker's yard... (All the local breakers wanted insane money for them - Over 4x what I paid for the welsh one!)

 

[Monkey IQ]

3 hours ago, flash22 said:

Check the drive shafts and see if any of the boot are torn, it may have stripped the splines or snapped the shaft

is there any resistance in the clutch pedal ?

There is resistance in the clutch pedal but car just makes the dreadful grinding noise and won't engage any gear. 

[Monkey IQ]

1 hour ago, Cyker said:

Is it a 1.33 with 6-speed gearbox?

My Mk2 had the same engine+gearbox combo and had a similar problem where I lost the ability to go into any gear except 3rd.

Never found out why, but from a Wheeler Dealers episode with a different car (An Audi IIRC), I suspect one of the shift forks inside the gearbox had sheared off which prevented it from moving the gears. Only speculation, as I never got around to cracking open the gearbox to find out for sure (I don't have a impact wrench and no way was I going to hand-remove all the bolts just to satisfy my curiosity!); Replaced it with one from a welsh breaker's yard... (All the local breakers wanted insane money for them - Over 4x what I paid for the welsh one!)

 

No it's a 5 speed gearbox 1lt engine 

[flash22]

On 5/1/2022 at 4:55 PM, Monkey IQ said:

There is resistance in the clutch pedal but car just makes the dreadful grinding noise and won't engage any gear. 

Without getting it in the air and looking at it's a craps shoot

The clutch or pressure plate may have failed then, will it go into gear with the engine off ?

If it's a gearbox issue, be aware the gearbox is specific to the IQ most places will not touch it unless you have a donor gearbox

[Cyker]

Hmm, dunno about the 1L one... very rarely heard of problems with it!

I take it that even if the car is off and engine not running you still can't shift? If you can, then as flash suggests it may just be a clutch issue. If the problem is still there when the car is totally off then it is more likely a gearbox failure  Could be shifter cables, but that's even rarer.

With mine they took the Battery out to get at the gearbox and directly wiggled the selector arms rather than doing it via the gear stick, and from the feel of it was enough for them to pronounce the gearbox broken...

 

[Monkey IQ]

39 minutes ago, Cyker said:

Hmm, dunno about the 1L one... very rarely heard of problems with it!

I take it that even if the car is off and engine not running you still can't shift? If you can, then as flash suggests it may just be a clutch issue. If the problem is still there when the car is totally off then it is more likely a gearbox failure  Could be shifter cables, but that's even rarer.

With mine they took the battery out to get at the gearbox and directly wiggled the selector arms rather than doing it via the gear stick, and from the feel of it was enough for them to pronounce the gearbox broken...

 

No won't go into gear with car switched off

[Cyker]

Ack  

It's very likely the gearbox is broken... I think you'll need to find a specialist that can repair it, or source a replacement from a breakers. If you have a trusted mechanic/garage they may be able to advise better...

Sorry I don't have a better prognosis

[csaba121]

Had the same problem before  grinding noise  in all gears   and the car won't move. Took it to service. And they replaced the clutch  (the middle of the clutch plate snapped  and 2 springs broke out. 

 

[dash]

Toyota dealer? How much did it cost? 

[Monkeyboy2283]

I have had this exact issue a few weeks ago on my 2009 5 gear 1L with about 81K on the clock.

There was no pre sign of an issue, but on the way to work in the morning I was driving along and when to change into 3rd gear and it would not go into gear, I just a loud metallic grinding sound, so I tried all the other gears and it was exactly the same, so I just rolled to a stop at the side of the road and called the RAC.

The engine was working as normal and with the engine off the gearbox felt and moved as normal.

To cut a long story short I got it towed to my local independent garage for them to diagnose and fix the issue and it was caused by the clutch failing, the centre of the clutch and come detached from the rest of the clutch so the drive shaft was still turning but it was not attached to the clutch plates, they replaced the clutch the slave cylinder, but there was a lot of labour because to do the clutch then needed to remove the subframe and gearbox.

The cost in the end was £980.99 inc VAT.

As far as I know it was still the original clutch, so it does seem that maybe they have a weak clutch in the 1L, the garage said they have never seen a failure like this.

My advice would be if you are getting these sorts of issues, would be to get a mobile clutch specialist to come out and fix it for you, as I think they do flat price repair.

Or if you are able to do it yourself I found this video showing the clutch swap process.

2009 Toyota IQ (VVT-I) 1.0L Clutch Replacement

[Mark_P]

Our clutch started to go towards the end of last year.  This year, it finally went.

We were charged £650 - the chap had done an IQ in 2023, he was expecting it to be a quick job. Sadly that wasn't the case due to the car previously living on the south coast, lots of salt down that way.  
 

At one point he almost gave up as he just couldn't get the axle bars to budge.  We stood there, talked about it, looked at the axle. He smacked it again and it started to move.

This is the video he did of the one from 2023. No video of mine but he did end up doing it in the cold, with some snow and rain as well.

 

[Monkeyboy2283]

18 hours ago, Mark_P said:

Our clutch started to go towards the end of last year.  This year, it finally went.

We were charged £650 - the chap had done an IQ in 2023, he was expecting it to be a quick job. Sadly that wasn't the case due to the car previously living on the south coast, lots of salt down that way.  
 

At one point he almost gave up as he just couldn't get the axle bars to budge.  We stood there, talked about it, looked at the axle. He smacked it again and it started to move.

This is the video he did of the one from 2023. No video of mine but he did end up doing it in the cold, with some snow and rain as well.

 

On my repair they said they have a seized axle that took some time to remove, so that seems to be common issue but they have been in place for 15 years, so it's not a surprise.

[Mark_P]

On 2/27/2024 at 6:39 AM, Monkeyboy2283 said:

On my repair they said they have a seized axle that took some time to remove, so that seems to be common issue but they have been in place for 15 years, so it's not a surprise.

That is what I thought, they probably haven't been touched since the day it rolled off the line.  One thing he did say when he came back to replace the O2 sensor is the axle seals could be leaking, advice was to look out for any leaks on the ground.