i've had a weird problem happening to my P5 lately with the hot weather....it seams that when i have the a/c on for 30 min or more my clutch petal will go stiff and my shifter will stiffen up to the point where i can't shift into any of my gears. As soon as i turn off my a/c for a minute i can shift again. also if i turn the car right off i can shift into gear no problem, but if i start her up imediatly (sp) she stiffens right up again where i can't shif into gear. If i let the car sit for 5 min its fin?

any idea's before i goto the dealer?

 

try putting the crack pipe away and then drive......

 

THis sounds pretty logical, actually - losing clutch power due to overheating of the fluid. Same with brakes - if you overheat the brake fluid, you lose brake pressure.

This is the first I've heard of this issue, for sure. But maybe your clutch line is somehow routed very close to a hot engine or tranny component. Could be that a well-placed zip tie might be the easiest solution, to pull the clutch line away from potential sources of heat.

~HH

 

its extremely unlikely that any extra heat caused from the a/c condensor or fan in the engine compartment is gonna be enough to overheat the hydraulic fluid, and then cycle back and forth to being fine again as quickly as you switch the a/c on or off.

try my suggestion first.

 

does the AC system share any fluids with the brake/clutch system?? Maybe the clutch line itself is pushed/pulled onto a hot surface?

 

trust me i don't smoke crack, i work for the cops......

temp gauge is normal, in the middle

its strange though, as soon as i turn the car off, i can go into gear, as soon as i turn the car right back on, can't shift anymore....its like im getting a hydrolic failure or something

 

Interesting... I've noticed a similar problem on my 2001 ES since I replaced the stock shifter with the B&M Short Shifter....and I see you have a B&M as well. However, I cannot attribute the problem to the A/C. I usually have difficulty shifting after driving the car around for at least an hour during warm/hot weather. This is without the A/C turned on.

During these "hard shifting" situations, I find that double-clutching helps a lot. I don't know much about transmission systems, but perhaps we're both having problems with the synchros?

I'll try to pay more attention to the A/C and see if there's any relationship.

J.

P.S. Did you also replace your transmission fluid with Redline? If so, with which Redline fluid?

 

no regular transmission fluide...don;'t know how to change it

 

Did you look around, inspect the shifter linkage, crawl underneath, inspect everything, then start it up and inspect everything again. Its not rocket science, if theres a problem , you should be able to figure it out by investigating...