Occasionally hard [to impossible] to grab 1st or 2nd, and stuff...

Jnitrofish

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 24, 2009
Location
Texas
TDI
2005.5, 2005.5, and 2006. 5m, 5m, and DSG.
My immediate thought [and your thought] is shifter linkage, but not the simple adjustment you are thinking (because I do those on a regular basis). Read on and see if you can figure it out.

If I wasn't already interested in trading my car in for an automatic because of my left knee and ankle causing me pain and discomfort, my 2005.5's tendency to malfunction and smother any enjoyment I get out of it took the way of the shifter the other day.

While driving, with the car warm, with no problems, I approached a red light. When I proceeded to take off from the light (now green), the car didn't want to shift to second, so I tried third and it worked, I tried second again and it didn't want to go in, I tried first (as I am now creeping in traffic on the highway) and it didn't want to grab either. I then put the hazards on and feathered the clutch in third to get off the highway into a parking lot.

Once in the parking lot I stopped and then keeping the clutch to the floor I jammed through every gear that would work (in order of 3rd, 4th, 5th, REVERSE [and it was still reverse]) and then tried second and it roughly went in and first which roughly went in as well. I then drove down the back roads to my home which was only 4 miles away, which the shifting steadily improving along the way 0but still a little rough).

After returning home I called and talked to someone (unrelated), and then decided to drive it again to decide if I needed to go grab my explorer from a family member's house to drive to my final exams (the next day).... It fixed itself. I drove it to finals and back (250 miles) without issue.

When talking to a family member about what had happened I described the evnt as "not exactly confidence inspiring."

The related history with the transmission:

-Fluid change with G55/G70 mix 17.5k miles ago.
-New G60/VR6 Sachs clutch/flywheel kit 10k miles ago.
-F-ing shifter linkage adjustments every 5k miles due to (consistent) difficult shifting, and I found it shifts best if I don't align things properly with the pin....

As an extra note: this transmission has always felt a little weird compared to my old 2006 (favorite car ever, totaled). With some of the gears it feels like you are hooking the shifter (doing a dog leg) as you are going into gear. And its never felt like the gears are exactly one on top of the other (2nd and 4th feel shifted slightly to the right compared to the top gears, i.e R, 1, 3, 5).

I am bamfoozled by this thing to say the least.

Help?
 

Jnitrofish

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 24, 2009
Location
Texas
TDI
2005.5, 2005.5, and 2006. 5m, 5m, and DSG.
Meh. Nobody knows, and it hasn't repeated itself in the last 1000 miles.

So, meh...
 

AndyBees

Top Post Dawg
Joined
May 27, 2003
Location
Southeast Kentucky
TDI
Silver 2003 Jetta TDI, Silver 2000 Jetta TDI (sold), '84 Vanagon with '02 ALH engine
Occasionally, I have tranny shifting issues pretty similar to what you described! I've never adjusted the linkage.....but one thing I've noticed, seems on rainy days it shifts perfect. Maybe its a lube issue?..............thinking out loud!
 

TDI Bebop

Member
Joined
Sep 27, 2009
Location
NoCal, USA
TDI
Golf MkV "aka Rabbit" - The wannabe TDI
As an extra note: this transmission has always felt a little weird compared to my old 2006 (favorite car ever, totaled). With some of the gears it feels like you are hooking the shifter (doing a dog leg) as you are going into gear. And its never felt like the gears are exactly one on top of the other (2nd and 4th feel shifted slightly to the right compared to the top gears, i.e R, 1, 3, 5).
Sorry, no help on your main issue but I thought this was really interesting! It's almost exactly how I'd describe the strange feeling I sometimes get going from 1-2 in my MkV 2.5L. The mechanical parts are probably all different, and I also believe it did this from the factory even before I correctly installed a short shifter.... When my hand motions are just right it shifts like a hot knife through butter, but if I'm lazy and slide the stick along the left side of the "slot" I can occasionally "snag" what appears to be the difference in where the "slots" for 1st & 2nd start.

I keep wondering if some adjustment to the shift linkage could change this, but I don't see how that could effect the relative position of single gears...?
 

DieselJeff

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 16, 2003
Location
Nashua, NH
TDI
'10 Jetta 6MT & '11 Jetta DSG
Interesting to read your story. This is no help to you but I had a 2003 Golf that had everything, I mean EVERYTHING tranny related replaced and would still grind into reverse, unless I went from 1st to reverse. When I say it was all replaced I mean everything imaginable. Hopefully you solve your mystery.....I traded mine before it fixed itself :) With that, my troubles began by having a local shop TRY to upgrade my clutch.....lesson learned.
 

chrisfiat

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 14, 2006
Location
farmington nh
TDI
97 jetta
havesome one move the shifter while you watch the shaft that goes into the trans. also check all the trans engine mounts, especaily the dogbone mount
 

flatlanded

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 1, 2009
Location
Saskatchewan
TDI
2002 Jetta
Sounds like something's out of alignment within the trans. Does it make a difference when you shift at the proper revs for gear meshing (taking the clutch out of the equation)?
 

RECCE-17

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 3, 2010
Location
Pembroke, Ontario, Canada
TDI
current 2011 Jetta,(ret)01' Jetta TDI (ret) 92' Golf Diesel
havesome one move the shifter while you watch the shaft that goes into the trans. also check all the trans engine mounts, especaily the dogbone mount
I second that. Very possible for the mounts to cause this.

When it was acting up did you try to give it a little tap of the gas just to make the RPM's jump about 250 while having the clutch pushed all the way in and gently pushing the stick toward whatever gear you were intending to be in?

I don't know a lot about your transmission but that may help if its a worn or out of sync syncro problem.
 

manual_tranny

Smyth Performance- Intern
Joined
Jan 5, 2010
Location
New Bedford, MA
TDI
2001 Golf @182K; 2000 Jetta @290K
I know all this guessing isn't going to help- but...

I saw you have a mix of transmission fluids, and that this issue seems to "resolve itself". Perhaps a thicker fluid would help? I had trouble shifting into 1st and 2nd gears once.... like you it only happened when the car got warmed up. Just throwing that out there, even though it sounds like you also have some problems with worn motor mounts or something similiar.
 
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