Toyota Repair: 2000 Toyota Corolla, shift levers, toyota corolla

Question
We own a 2000 Toyota Corolla (manual transmission) that we purchased used. The
current milage is 76,000. The previous owner more than likely rode the car hard over
gravel and dirt roads judging from the amount of road damage to the underside. But, we
bought the car four years ago and have had no major problems. We put less than 5,000
miles per year on the car under primarily suburban conditions. The winters here are mild,
and have no snow or ice.

Today I had the car out and it behaved normally for the first half of the trip. When I
got to my destination and prepared to leave, the car would not shift properly. The gears
felt "loose" and wobbly and it was difficult to find ANY gear, especially 2nd
and reverse. I was able to get home by skipping second gear, and holding the gear shift
in place for the other gears which would hold MOST of the time. I was able to
occasionally engage second gear, but it was very hard, and most of the time it would go
into position and rev without ever moving the car.

I know this sounds bad, but HOW bad is it?"


Answer
This transmission has shift cables attached to the shifter that connect to the shift levers on the transmission, the cables should be checked first, there may be a broken cable, if that's not the problem then there is an internal transmission problem, my recommendation would be to replace the transmission with either a used one or a remanufactured one, repairing the existing transmission will probably cost more than replacement.