Help

[ben hudson]

Hi

sometimes reverse gear can not be engaged unless you turn the engine off first, all other gears are fine.

Can anyone give any advice please

Can the clutch be adjusted?

Thanks Ben

[littledaz]

Sounds like clutch is dragging. It is hydraulic and is not adjustable :(

 

Couple of possibilities, clutch worn and requires replacement or hydraulic fluid leak/poor pressure i.e. worn slave/master cylinder.

How does your pedal feel, does it have enough resistance indicating good fluid pressure? If so, I think you're looking at a new clutch.

[chromedome]

What speed is your engine idling at? Sometimes if too fast reverse can be difficult to engage.

[ben hudson]

Thanks for the help

littledaz

Clutch pedal feels ok no leaks or fliud loss no diff in brakes operation, (this is the supply of clutch fliud)

chromedome

idle speed is 850-900 is this right can not find a figure myself.

I have started to look at the base of the gear stick there is a nylon ball and socket this has a bit of wear, will replace that first and let you know.

i don't think it is the clutch, it does not slip and bites well if you know what i mean

any other ideas

Thanks Ben

[HullHornet#30]

I have this problem and have had a reliable garage look at it, he told me it is the gear linkage and that it is badly worn, the expression he used was like stirring pudding in a bowl, hence me getting rid of car.

[gregers]

could the cables be a tad worn,if the other gears are fine then there should be nothing wrong with the clutch?

[ben hudson]

Have replaced the gear stick and all bush at the base of it and the cables were replaced last year (because the cup end broke)

still having the problem

if you force (pull hard) it into reverse it goes in ???

[HullHornet#30]

As i said previous we have exactly the same problem and it is the gear linkage that is worn.(not cables connecting gear stick to linkage)

[steelblue ghia]

We had trouble selecting a couple of gears on our old mk1 tdi,the gearlever was also very slack and sloppy feeling in general,turned out it was the gear selector shaft bolt inside the gearbox that had been working its way loose until it finally made contact with a gear and promptly got smashed out of the bottom of the gearbox....! I did manage to repair the damage myself without removing the gearbox thanks to some sound advice I found on this forum...I hope this is not the symptoms that your car is showing because it was a pig of a job !good luck.

[tim-spam]

The main thing that points to the clutch being the problem is that it goes into reverse OK when the engine is not running. What happens if you select a forward gear first and then quickly try to select reverse?

 

The reasoning behind my question is that on the VAG 6-speed gearbox, all the gears have synchromesh, including reverse, but the synchromesh is not so strong on reverse as it is on the forward gears. Basically, if the input shaft is still spinning due to a slight clutch drag, the synchromesh will prevent gear selection until it has stopped the input shaft from turning. It may be that the reverse gear synchromesh is not strong enough to stop the input shaft from turning, hence preventing gear selection. However, if you select a forward gear, the input shaft should have been stopped by this, and if you can select reverse before it starts turning again, it should select fairly easily.

 

If reverse did not have synchromesh, a dragging clutch would simply cause the gears to 'crunch'.

 

One more thing to try is bleeding the clutch - air in the system could be causing incomplete release.

Edited February 28, 2007 by tim-spam