Loose and rough shifter

[JudgeM]

Hello all.

First time I drove a Yaris was when I was learning to drive, my driving school had a first gen yaris. Thats when I loved the car. It had an awesome gear change, very short shift and clicks in beautifully

Years later when I finally bought my own. 2nd gen RS, the shifter left me dreaming for more. The throws seem longer and it just doesnt feel good.

I had a squeaky gear change in 1st and 2nd. After I followed the post and lubed it it was better. 3rd and 4th are still not very nice. 5th is good and reverse is as usual. Overall when I wiggle the shifter it feels loose and not very tight.

Do you think maybe the linkages need to be properly tightened up and greased ? or is this the way it is ?

[harda toenail]

Are you saying that when the car is in gear the shifter can be moved around? If so, that's normal in any manual car. The shifter is meant to only be touched when changing gears.

However if it is clunking into gears or grinding that is abnormal. Is there anyone nearby with a yaris you could check out to see if the shifting is similar? It's hard to tell if there is an issue with subjective information.

[JudgeM]

The shifter should still feel a bit more tight and not so spongy I reckon.

My friends 2006 corolla's shifter feels much better and he has abused his car way more than me.

[nookandcrannycar]

If you have a driver side floor mat, try taking it out and driving around for a day or two. Reading Harda Toenail's post reminded me of the clunking I used to hear. At about 208k miles I wore a hole in my floor mat with a new boot. I removed the floor mat because of the hole. Side effect = no more clunking from that point forward! Even though the floor mat was attached to the proper hooks, I think the pressure I put on the mat was stretching it and I don't think the clutch pedal was able to travel quite far enough (because of the position of the mat) until I removed the mat. I could feel the difference, even though slight. Perhaps a coincidence, but taking the mat out for a day or two (if you have one) can't hurt anything.