[SIZE=3]Hi. I drive a 96 Corolla GLi. It has served me well for the past 10 years except for some repairs due to wear and tear. For the past few months I have noticed that shifting gears wasn't as smooth as when we first bought the car. I just ignored it and assumed that some things just don't perform as well as when it was brand new. In the past, when I shift gears, it glides on smoothly, now, it's "maganit" or it feels as if there's metal to metal contact. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=3]Last Saturday, I was driving home and everything went as usual until I reached an intersection with a stoplight. The stoplight just turned red and I was the first car on queue, but being the clutch driver that I am, decided to leave it on first gear, stepping on the clutch and brake at the same time. When the light turned green, I stepped on the gas and released the clutch gradually but to my horror the car wouldn't move! So I floored the clutch again and moved the stick in all directions, it was stuck for a while and finally moved to neutral. From there, I tried shifting to first gear again but it took me so much effort. For the duration of the drive I found it extremely hard shifting from first to second gear and from second to first gear. Aside from the fact that I had to put so much force into shifting gears, I couldn’t shift directly a gear up or down without letting the stick remain in neutral for a good few seconds. When I got home I turned off the engine and tried shifting all the gears and found no resistance at all. This morning I tried driving my car again and had no more difficulty shifting gears except for its being usually maganit. However, I do want to find out what caused this incident. I want to resolve it before it gets worse. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=3]I tried searching online for answers and found that a lot of people have the same problem as mine. However, the responses that I gathered were mostly from US residents and I found myself more and more nervous reading through solutions that were leaning towards major repairs/replacements. I do know that here in Manila, particular solutions or repairs are first sought before resorting to immediate replacement. I just want to know the things that I should check first before jumping into bigger and costlier solutions eg Heavy steering could just be due to low tire pressure. Thanks! [/SIZE]