2012 Mustang Shifter Issue/Possible Transmission Issue

jordan_22

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Joined
Mar 7, 2022
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Location
Philadelphia, PA
Hello all!

I’ve been searching online for any sort of information on this problem and already posted to another forum, but I’m lost at what to look at next.

The problematic car in question is a 2012 V6 manual with 150k miles and it is not shifting into the corresponding positions correctly. I’ve made A LOT of notes because I hope more details help. I’ve tried to explain this in various ways to people and just end up confusing them so excuse the rudimentary details, I needed to make a list, but I know y’all know your stuff. haha

So of course,

Normal R = push down on shifter & move to 1st position

But currently experiencing the following:

R =
  • Goes into 1st
  • Feels strange though, unsure how to describe

1st =
  • Goes into R
  • When shifter is moved slightly left and forward between what would be the space between normal 1st position and normal 3rd position, will go into 1st

2nd =
  • cannot go into normal position at all; feels like something hard is blocking it from going all the way left like normal
  • If shifter is pushed down and moved left and back can still feel ‘block’ initially, but can get into 2nd when pushed back past where ‘block’ seemingly ends (upon taking the shifter out, said block seems to be the reverse lock out)
  • Much like 1st, if pushed slightly left and back between what would be the space between normal 2nd position and normal 4th position, will go into 2nd (but hard to find the magic spot and therefore useless to know when driving)

3rd & 4th =
  • Working, but feel way ‘looser’ than normal

5th & 6th =
  • Seemingly sliding into place as normal with no notable resistance; have not tested them while driving for obvious reasons

Other Notes:
  • Clutch working as normal
  • No grinding heard when switching gears or “rough shifts” felt prior at anytime while driving
  • I got under and pulled the bushing and bracket and it looked fine. I also got the shifter out the car and it seemed to move fine & didn’t notice anything strange.
  • Problem occurred once before and I’ve been able to get things working again by moving it— pushing up down/various directions (to be honest, I’m not sure exactly how I did it)
  • Has only occurred in cold weather (cold weather shifting issues were noted for 2011-2019 years, more notably with the 2011 NHTSA investigation so this did send up a red flag— couldn’t find a fix though).

I’ve read it can be anything from bad synchros, bad shift fork, needing a recalibration, or even worse an actual transmission issue (praying it’s not)… but this usually came from information related to other manual car make/models so just trying to figure out where to keep looking. I’m thinking some sort of linkage issue…? But she’s my first manual so I’m unsure what’s up here.

Any and all thoughts are greatly appreciated and if I can provide any more detail, let me know.

Thanks y’all!
 

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