5 speed manual shifter seems to slip while trying to shift

cochrank

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 23, 2005
Location
Erie, PA
TDI
2002 Jetta
I have a 2005.5 Jetta with ~230,000 on it. It was starting to get a little fussy shifting so I adjust the linkage. Pretty easy. Now I have having other issues and it seems to be coming from the shifter itself not the linkage at the transmission. When shifting sometimes it feels like the linkage "slips" on the cables and will not allow you to shift into a gear. You try and it will not engage or the shifter will not move. You pull over and do some "persuasion" with the shifter and then it seems to find the right gears after feeling like it slips back in place and you can go through all the gears again. Just feels like a plastic holder is sliding over a threaded rod kind of feel. Is there any linkage by the shifter inside the car that needs to be adjust or can slip? I know by the transmission the spring loaded plastic holders can wear and slid over the threaded cable end (I know this because i had to replace one that wore and would not hold). I know this is not currently the issue because I don't have to re-adjust anything after it throws it shifting fit :)

Any help would be appreciated before I start to rip things out
 

KenGee

Member
Joined
Jun 21, 2019
Location
Alberta
TDI
2006 Jetta TDI MkV BRM
I have a 2005.5 Jetta with ~230,000 on it. It was starting to get a little fussy shifting so I adjust the linkage. Pretty easy. Now I have having other issues and it seems to be coming from the shifter itself not the linkage at the transmission. When shifting sometimes it feels like the linkage "slips" on the cables and will not allow you to shift into a gear. You try and it will not engage or the shifter will not move. You pull over and do some "persuasion" with the shifter and then it seems to find the right gears after feeling like it slips back in place and you can go through all the gears again. Just feels like a plastic holder is sliding over a threaded rod kind of feel. Is there any linkage by the shifter inside the car that needs to be adjust or can slip? I know by the transmission the spring loaded plastic holders can wear and slid over the threaded cable end (I know this because i had to replace one that wore and would not hold). I know this is not currently the issue because I don't have to re-adjust anything after it throws it shifting fit :)



Any help would be appreciated before I start to rip things out
I ended up having a very similar problem, but found that if I only shifted the car when the car was running and I was moving it was not a problem. I wasn't a big fan of that work-around though, so like you I changed the linkages, but I also replaced the bushings and other shifter parts from Diesel Geek, then also lubed the shift tower. I did all of that at the same time, so it's tough to tell what fixed my problem, but it essentially went away after all of that...maybe something to look into?

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cochrank

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 23, 2005
Location
Erie, PA
TDI
2002 Jetta
Group,

Just wanted to give everybody an update on this in case you have the same issue. As I stated I purchased an new shifter cable end because the old one pretty much wore off the teeth on the plastic. After replacing this it would still seem to slip but I you moved it around it would go back into place and i would not have to readjust the cables. With that I thought it could not be the cable end, had to be something else. I then bought DieselGeeks bushing to put on thinking it was just sloppy and maybe falling out of the holder. Per Jim at DieselGeek there are only two places it could "slip" since it is a solid cable. Either it slips out due to the bushing or it slips at the transmission (cable or the shifter plate since it is splined). Once I finally removed everything to get to the shifter cables (that is a pain) I looked at the bushings while shifting and found they were fine. Luck would have it though, while doing so, it did its "Slipping" feel/issue. With that I had another person move the shifter while I looked at the transmission and cable ends and BAM, found my issue. I was indeed still slipping inside the cable end. Even though it was a new cable end the serrated cable part was dirty and worn down due to age. I cleaned this end up to the best of my ability with a wire brush so the fingers had something to grab a hold of and adjusted the shifter like normal. Once adjusted I put a small amount of activated super glue on it to hold it. I know it will be a pain to adjust in the future but If I ever have to I will most likely have to replace the cable since it will be un-salvageable at that point (if I cleaned it any more it would have been smooth). It now works perfect and doesn't slip. Just wanted to throw that out there. If it feels like it is slipping over a threaded rod, it probably is and get another person to help you confirm (Occam's razor at its finest)
 
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