No drive in gear

I have a Y-reg Focus 1.8 TDCI. When pulling away from a junction in first gear, there was a loud bang and I have now lost all gears. With the clutch pedal up, I have no drive! The day before, the clutch slipped a couple of times.

I called the RAC, who checked under the car and said the driveshafts, CV joints and gear change cables all looked OK. They said it may be a broken clutch or gearbox problem, as the car can move in gear, as if it were in neutral. My local garage, who replaced the gear change cables due to losing all but first and reverse gears approximately four months ago, have told me it’s not the cables. I can’t get the car up to them to have a proper look as I’ve got nothing to tow it with. Steve Wooldridge As the clutch was slipping the previous day, the most likely scenario is that the clutch centre plate has disintegrated, causing a total loss of drive. If the failure was due to a component within the gearbox, I would normally expect this to be accompanied by some unusual noises within the gearbox. If you can happily select any gear without crunching or grinding noises, albeit with no drive, the fault is more likely to be the clutch.

I would agree that the gear cables are unlikely to be the problem. Unfortunately, the only way to confirm the failure would be to remove the gearbox.