Hyundai M5AF / M5CF

Hyundai's five-speed manual transaxles — the M5AF and M5CF — in the Accent, Elantra, Getz and the Kias beside them.

⚑ The letters are the code and the digit is not a version. M is manual, the 5 is the ratio count, and the rest identifies the family and torque class — so an M5AF3 and an M5CF2 are not successive versions of one gearbox. Reading the trailing digit as a revision is the standing mistake with Hyundai's codes, and it is the same trap the A4AF automatics carry.

They are light, cable-shifted units built to a cost for small cars, and the linkage is the first suspect in nearly every complaint of a vague or baulky change. Check the cables and the gearbox mount before the synchronisers.

Their known weakness is the input shaft bearing on higher-mileage cars, heard as a rumble in neutral with the clutch up — which distinguishes it from a release bearing, the noise it is most often confused with.

The M6CF six-speeds that followed are a different family with their own page here.