I've been driving this SL2 5 speed manual transmission Saturn for 7 years now, and its always popped out of 3rd gear, not every time, but enough to be annoying. Would it be that the gear shift needs a new top position shift plate? > its been a great dependable car otherwise !
I once owned a 1967 VW bug, and all it needed was a $5.00 shift plate replacement(2 bolts), to keep it from popping out of reverse gear position.
> thanks for the reply!

Most likely it's a bad synchro. Would require the transmission be removed and disassembled so you might as well rebuild it or find a replacement.

I know this may be too late but I'll give you my two cents anyway.:2cents:

I had this same problem with my '01 SL2. It would pop out of 3rd pretty frequently. I found a trick to it. If it started poping out, I wouild push in the clutch and put it in 1st gear position and push the gear shift forward as far as it would go. It would seem like a plate was out of wack or something, but it worked.

One night on may way to Boston from Cape Cod to see a Bruins game, I got off the freeway and had nothing but 5th gear!!! Turned out to be a frayed casing on the shift cable! When I tried to shift, it had no counter pressure on the cable therefore only moved the broken casing back and forth , not the actual shift cable. I paid $200 for a new set of shift cables (Dealer part only) and the poping out of 3rd gear went away. My theory is that when I was pushing the gear shift all the way forward in 3rd gear, I was actually seating the cable casing again.

As I said before, this may be too late, but if not, take a look at the cables where they hook to the tranny, that's where my problem was anyway. Look for a loose casing or some fraying.

Hope this helps!!

Eric
danoresmen@yahoo.com