thanks for the reply. have tried moving the shift levers manually and they move freely. really stuck on this one as i have never worked on this type of gearbox before. any steps for troubleshooting would help alot. recently replaced the clutch plate with an LUK 3 piece kit (pressure plate, friction plate and slave cylinder) but still excactly the same. the car wants to move but will only bite the clutch for about half a second then repeat after 3-4 seconds. it will do that about 10 times then lock out and the gear warning light comes on and it won't let you restart the engine, it will only restart after about 20 ignition cycles or if the battery is disconnected for 30-50 seconds, again no codes are showing up on the scanner.