My wife and I were supposed to be moving from DC to San Diego but car problems have left us stuck in Des Moines, IA. We have a 99 Hyundai Elantra 5-speed with a manual transmission. We are having a problem where we (I think) are slipping out of gear when we take the car into 5th gear and exceed 60 mph. Oftentimes, the car will stall when this occurs so this could lead to a dangerous situation on the highway. We have taken the car into two different mechanics (one of them the Hyundai dealer) and had the clutch replaced but the problem still persists. There are no computer codes going off when this occurs and the auto mechanics can’t seem to find the problem. We are at a loss as to what to do. We are considering just junking the car and flying to San Diego but would like to fix the problem if we can figure out what is causing it.
Please help! Thanks!
I don’t see how slipping out of gear will cause stalling. Please give more details.
I’m not sure if it is actually slipping out of gear. What happens is the car begins to kind of stutter and decelerate at these speeds. If I continue to try to push it after this occurs the car basically shuts down and stalls unless I downshift to 3rd gear and drive right around 30 mph. I have thought that it might be some sort of sensor problem or a problem with a fuel line that gets cut intermittently at certain speeds. I talked with a friend of my dad and he thought it could possibly be a “pressure plate.” I honestly have no idea what is causing this but it has made for a terrible driving experience.
It does not sound like a transmission or clutch problem to me. I’d guess fuel or ignition system.
I hope that they checked the fuel before they did the clutch. If you are lucky, it might be the fuel filter.
I don’t think they checked it. I don’t know anything about cars and I told them it was a gear/clutch problem. So I probably spent $850 that I didn’t have too. The more I read the more I think it is a fuel pump or filter problem. I’m going to replace the fuel filter and see how it goes. Thanks.
I changed the fuel filter and the problem seems to be fixed. Thanks so much!
Quote: “I don’t know anything about cars and I told them it was a gear/clutch problem.”
I don’t want to make you feel worse than you already do, but do you see the lack of logic that I perceive here? If you don’t know anything about cars, you should only report the symptoms, and not offer a diagnosis. By telling them that it was a transmission/clutch problem, you gave them carte blanche to tinker with the wrong parts of the car, to the great detriment to your wallet. And, even though they were apparently replacing parts that did not need to be replaced, you, in effect, authorized them to do this.
I hope that you have learned something from this very expensive lesson, and I REALLY hope that you don’t try to offer a diagnosis when you visit a surgeon!
