I recently purchased a 99 a4 2.8l quattro and i am in love with it. But i am now experiencing some jamming i guess with the shifter. while in neutral and i try and shift to third the shifter feels like it is hitting against a metal pole, them if a push it a little to the left it goes in. I also experience this a bit with first gear but i have to move it to the right a bit, but is no were near as bad as the third gear. Now would this be a problem with the shifter unit or would i need a tranny fluid flush, or is the problem worse.

 

might be the clutch

 

Any chance it has a aftermarket short shifter?

 

if it is stock, theres a few things you can do. one would be a trans fluid change, you could probably use one anyways and its something you should do when you first buy a car, and you can definately feel the difference between very old stock fluid and new high quality fluid like Redline or something.

second would be to replace your shift linkage, you can pull off your leather shift boot and see the plastic ball and cup that it sits in now, theres probably alot of play in there as the plastic wears down. i have a JHM solid shifter, its a night and day difference, simply amazing shifts, i cant remember the last time i missed a gear with this shifter.

worst comes to worst, something in the trans itself might be broken, but i would look at the other things first.