2nd, 4th & Reverse Gear Not Engaging

[mesci]

Hi All,

Please be gentle, first time poster and not a car expert.

I have a Toyota Yaris 1.3 2005 Colour Collection which has just done 110,500 miles.

Over Christmas I started having problems with getting my reverse gear to engage, it felt as though something was "blocking" it from going into gear. It would do this 2 or 3 times and then would go in. Over a course of 3-4 days (whilst visiting relatives) this extended to 2nd & 4th gear, until the day we got home and I could not engage 2nd, 4th or reverse gear at any time - no matter how many times I tried.

Anyway I took it to my local garage, who informed me in non-technical terms "darlin, if you treat your boyfriend as rough as you treat your car, he's an unlucky fellow", and that I had apparently "bent the brackets".

They fixed it for me, and for 2 weeks I have had no problems, I've been being VERY gentle with the gearbox, and have even driven down to Calais & back. Until yesterday when the reverse,2nd and 4th stopped engaging again whilst in an Ikea car park.

I enlisted the help of the AA, and he took a look over the car (not inside the gearbox) but could not see anything wrong with it, but also could not get it working, so towed me home.

I'm taking it back into the garage tomorrow, but wondered if anyone had any ideas on what is causing this:

a) which brackets could be being bent
b) is this a fixable or replaceable problem, or do I need a new gearbox?

Thanks for any advice/help in advance.