Car won’t change gear

[Yorkiepud2614]

Hello!
I was driving along this morning when suddenly my car declined to change gear. I pulled over and found that I could put it into 1st when the car was off. Managed to drive to the garage (1 mile away) in first.
The garage said they couldn’t look at it for the next week or so, too busy and I’d just shown up (they were very nice though) and I had someone come and collect me.
Has anyone ever had anything like this happen before? I feel like it’s going to be expensive.
65 plate corsa, 55k miles.

When that happened to me it was my clutch, cost around £400 to replace.

Yeah I would say clutch, too.

Thank you! I was hoping it wasn’t going to go above £600 😅

It's the clutch, sorry.

Clutch is likely but what are the exact symptoms?

I had similar on a previous car and it was the gear linkage on the base of the gear lever that had gone. Rather than spend the best part of £1000, I fixed it myself using cable ties 🤣.

I recently had to get the clutch replaced it cost around 700 including installation cost.
Btw if the main problem is putting the car into first gear when you start it: put the car into first gear without turning on the engine, and only start the engine after this step. It worked for me and I could keep driving the car until I had enough money accrued for the repair cost.

The car will not change to any gear when the engine is on. To get it to the garage after I had initially pulled over, I had to have the car in first before I turned the engine on.

If you could get it into first without a grinding/grunching sound it probably isn't the clutch.
You can drive a car without a clutch if you get the revs right. The tricky bit is starting off.
It could be the gear selector that has come adrift, which might be inside the gearbox itself. That would be worse.😭

It just won’t change what at all when the engine is on. No trouble changing the gears around while the engine is off. This is how I was able to make it to the garage, by having it in first before I turned the car on.

You would normally know if the clutch has gone because it goes all floppy. Whe you switched the car off and got it in first how did the clutch feel?

I'm thinking gear box but I'm no mechanic.

Completely normal when the engine is off. Really appreciating everyone’s experience here!