So for the past few months, my car has decided that it's really picky about how it shifts and when it wants to shift. Sometimes it will shift very smoothly, sometimes I have to give it a little bit of force, and recently, it wont go into gear at ALL.

Reverse is giving me the most trouble, 2/3's of the time it wont go in anymore.

First gear is usually pretty hard to get into, it's only blocked me out a couple of times.

Second gear- if I'm over ~4500rpms in first, I can't get into it. If I let the rpms drop below that (keeping the clutch held in while the rpms drop) then it will shift fine, or if I just shift below that it's alright.

The rest of the gears are pretty trouble free.


What could be causing this? I'm guessing it's a shift linkage adjustment, but how do I adjust it? Would anything else cause this?


My car- 1998 1.8t 5spd... dieselgeek short shifter is the only relevant mod.

 

i was having similar problems and a tranny flush took care of it.

 

Does ur tranny ever grind?

 

I'll have to look into flushing the fluid.



Yeah it grinds sometimes if i don't shift into second fast enough (clutch all the way in still).

 

Hows ur clutch cylinders and when was the last time u bled the system? Give em a peak b4 changin a tranny,especially if ur clutch has ever sunk 2 the floor or feels in any way odd.

 

The clutch and brakes use the same fluid (+ fluid resevoir) right? That may have something to do with it... My brake fluid resevoir is cracked and I've been meaning to flush the fluid for a while.

A guy on audizine recommended that I adjust the shift linkage- can anyone explain how to do that for me?