I have an Eclipse 2000, manual transmission. When the engine is cold, it will not shift into reverse. Even when the car is off, I cannot physically get the gear shift into reverse. Any ideas? The shop says I need a new transmission...

could be

you may just need fluid though. mine had the same problem and it was because it had gotten really cold outside, and when the fluids are cold it is harder to put the car in it's gears. mine usually wont go in reverse unless the car is already rolling.

Try using synthetic gear oil such as GM synchro mesh.

ya i actuall have this same problem if it gets real cold out at night, in the morning it wont let me shift out of park. i know its real bad for it but if i just put enoufgh force on the button on the shifter, it eventually lets go and i can leave. however whenever that happends, my key gets stuck in the ignition when i go to turn it off. i checked my fluids and they were all good, and i opened up the shifter and re-oiled all the gears and everything, but it still locks up. i gave it to my mechanic earlier today to look at it, if he finds out the problem, ill be sure to let you guys know

LUCAS TRANSMISSION STOP SLIP TREATMENT! and a little elbow grease as mentioned above!

ok i had taken mine in to the mechanic for this reason ( i did all i could and couldnt find out what it was) the mechanic said he found that my brake light button had slipped out of place (the button is located near the brake pedal shaft assembely inside the car, this button is what turns on your brake lights and evidently also determines if you have the brake in when shifting out of park)

so he said he popped that back into place, free of charge

also he said he opened up the shifting assembely under the console, and said that some of the linkage was damaged and out of place. he replaced and set back into place all of the linkage and so far, it works great. he charged me 75 dollars so it wasnt even that big of a deal.

hope this helps