99.5 Jetta Trouble Shifting Only Into 5th Gear

doubledls

Active member
Joined
Jun 30, 2002
Location
jackson county, michigan
TDI
Jetta, 1999.5 A4, black, 2009 Jetta 6 M, black
I have had trouble shifting into 5th gear. The other 4 gears work fine and I even had some folks at Mark of Diesel's GTG drive my car to see how it shifted. It seems if a take a trip and have it in 5th for a while and then stop at a rest stop, I can shift back into 5th. If I drive it around town usually using only first thru fourth gear and then get on the highway I usually have trouble getting into 5th gear (it make take 2 to 10 tries). What happens is that it shifts back into third gear, even when you think you have the shifter well over into the 5th gear position. When the engine is off or at idle it seems you can shift into all gears without a problem. I have had this car almost 7 years and this is the first real annoying problem. My car is a 99.5 Jetta (built Oct 1999) with 170,500 miles, with the original clutch.

Any ideas on what to do?
 

compu_85

Gadget Guy
Joined
Sep 29, 2003
Location
La Conner, WA
TDI
... None :S
My guess is that your car has the same problem as mine.. the cable assembly is loose on the selector shaft.

Or it could just be misaligned... Anyone know how to make the funny alignment plate that's used on the 99.5s?

-Jason
 

doubledls

Active member
Joined
Jun 30, 2002
Location
jackson county, michigan
TDI
Jetta, 1999.5 A4, black, 2009 Jetta 6 M, black
Symptoms getting worst

As of today, I could not put the transmission in 5th gear at all at highway speeds. I have also noticed that I shifted into third when coming from second gear even when I was slowing to a stop and intending to select first gear. Now when I try to go from 4th gear to 5th gear on the highway I always get 3rd gear instead.

Anybody elso have this happen? Is my clutch at the end of its life or is it just something loose or misaligned?:mad:
 

doubledls

Active member
Joined
Jun 30, 2002
Location
jackson county, michigan
TDI
Jetta, 1999.5 A4, black, 2009 Jetta 6 M, black
Loose bracket caused the problem

Folks:

I looked at the transmission last weekend and thought that there was too much play in it but I wasn't sure. I took it to the dealer and it was a 15 minute job to tighten it up. There should be almost no wooble if you grab the metal damping weight, if you have wooble you have a loose mounting bracket or nut (at the base of the damping weight). Everything now shifts fine.
 

Rickstah

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 5, 2002
Location
Yukon, Oklahoma
TDI
NB, 2002, green, Eurotek STG1
check out one of the sublinks on my sig link, it may help you. Same problem with my shifter once..it eventually fell apart!
 
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