Shifter Issue, selecting FIRST but entering REVERSE?

[WiszMaster]

I vaguely remember seeing a thread titled "WARNING" I think, where the OP had an issue that he was entering Reverse when selecting First.

Over the months this has happened to me several times, recently more often than not. I'm now at 21K miles, nearly 22K miles.

The first few times it happened, it scared the living you know what out of me, viewing the car behind me get closer, not much time to think about things other than to correct. Thought I was doing something wrong, though I've never had this issue with any other vehicle.

I've been able to replicate it on demand 2 times now, when speed rowing through. I have not figured out what the condition is that makes this happen, whether too much force to the side, speed and slight amount of down force..



Has anyone else had this happen?

I've had the car in the shop and asked them to look at it, they obviously couldn't replicate it(as I usually can't either), or find anything wrong. have never heard of this issue prior.

 

[TurnOne]

It happened to me twice. It was my fault and I bet it's your fault too.
On my car I can hear the camera opening. It happens when you aren't paying attention or distracted. That's my theory.
There is no way a manual transmission can go into reverse unless you make it.

 

[WiszMaster]

Chris;
The reverse gate should not engage unless the shift is pushed down significantly, but this is not the case. There is a possible combination of left, speed and possible slight down push, I'm talking about 1/8-1/4 inch, not pushing down 1"+ that clearly engages reverse.

While this may be perceived as "the drivers fault", it certainly should not be this simple to mistakenly place the vehicle in reverse. Worse is that the gear indicator in the MFD doesn't show gear unless you're driving.

 

[WiszMaster]

I've had and driven countless VWs, never once have I encountered one where reverse was selectable without significant and deliberate down push.

I'm not claiming that the vehicle selects reverse on its own while driving... I'm fully aware that it's an operator function, however it's appears that the mechanics allow this incidental selection when the stars align in just the right order.

 

[redbarron55]

Time for warranty repair!

 

[TDI73]

Here is the thread titled "Warning"
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=431626

 

[forhumans]

This has happened to me several times in the 10k miles of ownership.

My 4th manual VW, and the only one where this has occurred.

 

[andyman7931]

if this shifter is like the other VW shifters that I've taken apart, the reverse gate is in the shifter itself and not the transmisison, meaning that there may be a cable adjustment needed here to make the left-right motion of the lever align better with the transmission.

The first VW I bought (mk4 with 220k on the clock) had the opposite problem, had to push down to get the lever over enough to get into 1st. 5 minutes later after adjusting the cable it shifted like it was factory fresh.

 

[WiszMaster]

I had an appointment at the dealer yesterday morning for my leaky tire, and asked the. To check the shifter again.
Have not hear back yet, who knows if they've even looked at the car yet. Last time it was parked for 10 days before they looked at it on the 11th just to tell me they couldn't find anything. 11 days of rental car paid for by the dealer....

 

[No More Buffalo]

Yet another upside to getting a Dieselgeek Sigma put on...1st and Reverse and no longer in the same place. It actually matches the knob pattern so reverse is noticeable to the left of 1st.

 

[WiszMaster]

Yet another upside to getting a Dieselgeek Sigma put on...1st and Reverse and no longer in the same place. It actually matches the knob pattern so reverse is noticeable to the left of 1st.

Funny you mention that.
I've been wanting to pickup another SS from DG, but was wanting to see if dealer can find and fix this first. Just in case it's something trans, and then gets blamed on SS kit.... Since they can't seem to find anything, I may just go ahead and get it soon.

 

[Q400Pylot]

I started that thread and was jumped on by multiple ppl saying it was all driver error. Funny how my new TDI replaced by the dealer has not once done that.... Trust me I know the PITA feeling you have when it comes to this.

 

[Ol'Rattler]

Your shift cables need to be adjusted correctly. I inflicted the same problem from when I changed the clutch. A proper adjustment completely fixed the problem.

No, you don't need a Sigma Shifter, but if you want one, that's a different story. They look like they are very well made.

Based on the complaint alone, the dealer should have gotten out his repair manual and checked/adjusted the cables as part of the diagnosis.

It certainly is a BIG safety issue. When my car was doing it, it scared the living crap out of me.

 

[richyrich]

Yeah, I can't see how this is a model-wide defect. I checked my wife's when I drove it tonight and there is a good inch of downwards movement you have to do before you can go into reverse. No way it's going to happen by accident unless you habitually push down (a lot) when changing gear into first.

 

[Ol'Rattler]

The up down movement isn't the issue. With mine, the missadjustment moved the whole patern to the right to were reverse was were 1rst should have been so it would go into reverse with out pushing down.

I dougt if it is a defect with the OP's car, per say. Probably just got adjusted wrong at the factory.

 

[forhumans]

No way it's going to happen by accident unless you habitually push down (a lot) when changing gear into first.

See this thread: Shifter Issue, selecting FIRST but entering REVERSE?

It's happened to several people by accident.

 

[Ol'Rattler]

Huh? you linked to this thread. Unless you are Rainman at shifting it's close to imposable to hit reverse by accident unless the cables are out of adjustment.

 

[Ol'Rattler]

Funny you mention that.
I've been wanting to pickup another SS from DG, but was wanting to see if dealer can find and fix this first. Just in case it's something trans, and then gets blamed on SS kit.... Since they can't seem to find anything, I may just go ahead and get it soon.

Unless there are some worn parts (slop) in the shifting mechanism, the OEM setup works fine if it is adjusted correctly.

You may want to stop going to that dealer and find a shop that actually knows how to adjust the cables. It's super easy.

I'm at 152K miles and my car shift fine. No false reverse since I adjusted it per the Bentley's manual.

 

[WiszMaster]

Unless there are some worn parts (slop) in the shifting mechanism, the OEM setup works fine if it is adjusted correctly.

You may want to stop going to that dealer and find a shop that actually knows how to adjust the cables. It's super easy.

I'm at 152K miles and my car shift fine. No false reverse since I adjusted it per the Bentley's manual.

Like I said, I've had plenty of manual cars, VAG and not, never seen this issue.
I've also adjusted several shifters after replacing cable ends, doings clutch etc and installing SS kits. It's not a big deal, I just don't feel like getting dirty right now, that's what the warranty is for.

That said, a couple of days ago I printed out the shop manual's procedure for adjusting the shift linkage, and handed it to my SA, advising that it would be far faster and cheaper to reset and adjust that; than to deal with the aftermath of me reverse driving into someone's car at a light due to this issue, especially since I have brought it up already and dealer claimed there is no defect and all works as designed.
My SA promptly took the printed procedure to the tech that will be working on the car and told him to adjust it.

 

[Ol'Rattler]

Well, there you go. Hopefully, the tech is cognoscente enough to follow written directions. I do find it just amazing that with the nature of the complaint, they would even try to duplicate the problem.

The potential of rapidly going in reverse when 1rst was the gear the driver thought was engaged is a extremely dangerous situation. Did the SA crap himself once he actually understood how serious the problem really was?

My corrective action would have read something like: Customer complaint confirmed. Found shifter cables to be out of adjustment. Adj to MM procedure and complaint is resolved to customers satisfaction. Shifter operates as designed.

Or something like that.

 

[WiszMaster]

As usual, deny until you can't any any further. Then continue to deny.

So after the car was in the shop for almost 2 weeks, I've received a new rear bumper, a new tire, and the software update for the ash load. Couldn't replicate the issue, but we have a tech assist case#.

My SA and service manager suggested that if others are having this issue, reference this tech assist case number, and ask the dealer to call tech assist. If there are multiple calls about this issue, maybe something will be looked into.

Tech Assist Case number: 1438902


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[SpecialTest]

I've run into this issue a couple times too, but only when I shifting from reverse and intending to shift into first. All previous manuals I've driven have had reverse down next to 6th gear. It's only been when I've been in a bit of a hurry, so I'll have to pay attention to see if it happens by operator error (didn't truly shift from R to N and then to 1st), or what.

 

[fitzski]

FWIW, ran into this in my 6MT W8 some time ago:
http://www.w8forum.dk/forum_posts.asp?TID=3130&title=1st-gear-gets-me-reverse

Front of the line at a traffic light, waiting for the left turn advance to go green. When it does, I grab first and get underway - BACKWARDS. Figuring I of course must have some how depressed the gear lever and gone into R by accident, I reset and go again... BACKWARDS.

WTH?

Go into neutral, shift again, try reverse - nope, there's no way I'm "accidentally" grabbing R. One more time... BACKWARDS.

Put into 3rd gear and burn the clutch to get through the intersection. I pull over, and try 1st, and all is well. Very confused now. And man... that clutch stinks! Car was fine the rest of the drive.
...

Reverse on the 6MT W8 is similar to other VAG stuff... you must push "down" on the gear lever to clear a detent that would otherwise prevent you from moving the lever through the dog leg into R (top left of the shift pattern, beside 1st).

Not only did I certainly not push down the lever 3 times in a row, the lever did not go over nearly as far to the left as it normally would if I were purposefully trying to engage reverse. I'm up to ~190k kms on this car... I know where reverse is - or should be, at any rate!

 

[Q400Pylot]

All the tech does is put the car into reverse like 5 times and that's it. No complaints found etc. etc. it's total BS but really nothing will get taken care of for us on this. It's such a random thing and cannot be duplicated purposely because in your mind you knowingly are putting forth extra effort to select 1st.