Difficulty shifting into 1st gear.

(98 jetta)

This weekend i started having a little trouble shifting into 1st and occasionally 5th. The shifter seems to hang up a little before fully engaging the gear and sometimes feels like it gets completely stuck. This used to happen all the time in my fox and i just ignored it. Is there something that needs to be adjusted, replaced? I was going to change my trans fluid in the next few weeks.

How fast are you going when you try to shift into 1st (usually?) Sounds like your syncros are shot...
As for tranny fluid, I recommend you stick with Liquimoly or OEM .
-BB

1st no more than a few mph (under 10). Sometimes shifting into it from a dead stop gives me a little hassle. I don't know anything about trans so whats the cost/ difficulty of messing with the syncros? Also can i keep driving without any damage to the trans? I drove my foxes like that forever and never had any problems that i know of they are all gone now.

FWIW, I had just started to have shift problems, first "blocked", actually over at Reverse, so no Reverse, then no
fifth.

A lot of worry turned out to be just a loose nut on the linkage at the transmission. A little off-hand readjustment and tightening (13mm wrench), and everything ok. (although first still a little balky at times)

Lowell

There is an alignment procedure. I think the instructions can be found on dieselgeek.com. Check thier install instructions, A4 5 Speed Sigma Shifter, the adjustment section...

You can check your fluid levels relatively easily and top off as needed.

chromeBuddha said:

Check thier install instructions, A4 5 Speed Sigma Shifter, the adjustment section

Click to expand...

i have an A3 though, is it the same?

i need to read up on the fluid/checking/draining. I've had the car a year and a half and haven't checked it yet...

Hi,

Had same problem on my B4 and it turn out to be a bad slave cylinder. Just try to get all the basics troubleshooting out of the way first before you assume the worst. I thought for sure the clutch was gone because only way I could get it in first was to kill it then shift in first when not running.

Slave cylinder don't see to last more than 100K on any car including my old 280ZX.

Morph

problem is i really have no idea how to troubleshoot anything involving the transmission. If anyone can point me to some threads i missed about it that would be great. Wish there was a guru remotely close to me. I definitely don't want to take it to some local trans shop and don't really want to deal with the dealer especially since the one nearest to me won't work on anything older than a 2000.