Just got the Audi in my sig last Thursday, 128k miles. Coming from Fords, so I'm new to Audi and have been just reading through this forum's wealth of knowledge the past few days for a little education. I do just about all my own work unless in a time crunch (didn't do a rear end rebuild one break while home from college). I mean it when I say just about all - not just oil changes and spark plugs - recently did the timing belt on our Focus. All that to say I'm mechanically inclined and I have tools, and am not afraid to buy more That's my introduction. Hi all!

Now to the shifter. It would seem that there are two distinct semi-stops for gears 2, 4, and 6. The first seemingly stop that you come to is what seems like barely in gear, but with no grinding. It won't pop out under acceleration, but you can pull a little harder and get it down even more in gear. Judging from the shifter position, the second stop is fully in gear, as the first is just a little below neutral. I didn't realize that it had the second stop until I was driving the car home after I bought it. I looked through some other shifter threads, but didn't see anything quite like this. Anyone have an idea what's going on here?

On a semi-related note, the shifter handle keeps popping off. I was surprised that there was no thread on the actual shifter. It seems to be "held on" by a friction fit twisty ring on the bottom of the handle. I'm guessing this isn't the way the stock handle is held on?

I don't know what kind of shifter was installed by the previous owner - the receipt along with a few other items only says that a short throw was installed, so he must have purchased it at a place other than that shop.

 

Well...guess I'll start with replacing the shifter to take care of the handle issue, hope it fixes the shifting problem, and go from there.

 

For anyone else who might be having these issues in the future, the shifter is perty well boogered. I'll need to replace at least the shifter, but it looks like it's working for now. The goon who had the car before me I think just modified the stock shifter to be a short throw, and in the process swapped the bolts for the transmission brace and the shift rod. The bolts were tight, but since they weren't in the right place, the transmission brace had slop like none other. The "second stop" feeling was actually the entire shifter base sliding back.

I was also having problems getting it into reverse, which is what tipped me off that it might just need to be re-aligned after doing some reading. Following this process, I got it figured out and done.