Hey everybody, I purchased my 01 TT 225 with just under 60k miles on it from a dealer in CT for just under 15k. I was lurking on the forums for a while before posting. I'm brand new to driving stick, so I don't know too much about clutches and such but I am a quick study. I ran into a small problem that only happens every once in a while when I put the car into first at lets say a stop light.

I'd have the clutch down, put it in first and then the shifter would start rattling and shaking, making sounds. I'd drop it back into neutral and then back into first and it'd be okay but sometimes I'd have a hard time just putting it into first(I scared the **** out of the guy behind me on a hill the first time it happened, myself as well), sometimes I'd miss second or third, it just wouldn't go into gear properly, I'd have to wait until the revs drop before I can get it into second or third. I have a couple more days under warranty(came with a 30 day warranty) and the dealer said it sounded like it might be the clutch, since he has an interest in it being the clutch as it's not covered under the warranty. I'm pretty much 100% sure that the car was abused by it's second owner, since the original owner had it only for about 5 years until the warranty expired, carfax only showed records up until that time(2 year gap).

I was hoping to get some input on what it could be. I know my friend's father who helped me learn how to drive it mentioned the clutch is a little high on it. I was hoping I'd have another 10k miles on the clutch but I don't think that's likely the more I think about it. I'm gonna be taking it into a mechanic to see what they say before I take it up to the dealer to have it looked at, I don't really want to waste a trip to CT if it's 100% the clutch but I want to make sure it's not transmission related(other than the clutch being attached to the thing, of course). So any thoughts would be great.

 

Get used to the car a bit more, or have someone with standard trasmission experience take it for a drive. Sometimes the synchros just don't like to do as much work as they probably should... let the clutch out (in neutral) and press it in again, and try to put the car in gear again. If the shifters bouncing around, its because its not fully in gear, and the gears aren't meshing, they're just bouncing off each other.


Probably wouldn't hurt to do a oil change on the transmission, that may help your problem.

 

could be the clutch.. prepare yourself for a timing belt job at around 60k

 

try driving standard on a **** box before driving the TT. There's always a friend that is willing to let you drive their old std car