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Author Topic: Slipping out of 1st & reverse gears  (Read 4165 times)

Offline mickmurphy92

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Slipping out of 1st & reverse gears
« on: July 16, 2020, 09:54:25 am »
My 2006 manual GTi has started to slip out of 1st & is difficult to get into reverse, i have to hold into into reverse or it pops out. The clutch is good, i hope i just need to adjust the gearbox selection cables, anybody know how to do this?

Car info
Bought the car as a project a couple of months back, my first GTi & I love it!. Stage 1 APR planned, getting it right before i commit to the remap.  So far ive fitted Ramair intake, EBC brakes green stuff pads & disc (highly recommend). replaced the DV valve Rev G (mine was really bad, massive improvement) Cam follower, Cleaned oil pick up, I got it just in time it was almost fully blocked! Full service oils & filter.

Offline LC5F

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Re: Slipping out of 1st & reverse gears
« Reply #1 on: July 18, 2020, 09:08:53 pm »
The good thing with adjustment its easy to do and free, hope it sorts your problems out
The very best guide is the Diesel Geek one on youtube:


Offline pudding

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Re: Slipping out of 1st & reverse gears
« Reply #2 on: August 01, 2020, 01:11:42 pm »
Bleed the clutch and try the dieselgeek guide to see if that sorts it.  It's too wordy to explain. The guide is for a different gearbox but the procedure is the same.

Mine pops out of 1st sometimes as well, and is why I've sourced a replacement gearbox.   I've done the cable adjustment and bled the clutch until blue in the face and it's still doing it.



2007 ED30 | 2009 TDI 140 | 2016 BMW 330D

Offline mickmurphy92

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Re: Slipping out of 1st & reverse gears
« Reply #3 on: August 05, 2020, 10:26:17 pm »
Thank you both for responses, The issue went away after some driving, here's the back story.

I had the sump off to clean the oil pickup, which involves removing 4 bolts that attach to the gearbox, the issue arose after doing this work, but as i said after some driving ( I needed to get somewhere i didn't enjoy the idea of driving it) only using 2nd gear & above it slots into 1st & stays perfect. My guess is when tightening the gearbox bolts back to the sump i may have miss aligned the gearbox slightly & from driving it re aligned.

That could be wrong, but its my best guess. In the mean time I had bought a shim to take up the slack in the main gearbox shaft, this is said to resolve similar issues. Should i fit this anyway ? No harm i suppose. See below shim kit. I wrote this explanation in case somebody else has similar issue, this forum has helped me out, hopefully this helps somebody in the future

https://www.darksidedevelopments.co.uk/products/02m-02q-gearbox-input-shaft-shim-kit-and-end-cap.html

Offline pudding

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Re: Slipping out of 1st & reverse gears
« Reply #4 on: August 07, 2020, 07:00:13 pm »
Sump work shouldn’t affect the gearbox, they’re all little m5 bolts, I’m confused!

As well as jumping out of 1st occasionally, mine would also refuse to let go of a gear. It took a lot of force on the gear stick to get it out of said gear, usually 2nd. Basically, there was too much end float in the input shaft, in spite of having the shim fitted at the factory.

Long story short.... I ended up fitting a 2011 Scirocco TSI box with a custom shim to remove all of the slack from the input shaft. It’s super slick now and all shift issues solved. Also stuck some Redline MTL oil in it for good measure  :happy2:


2007 ED30 | 2009 TDI 140 | 2016 BMW 330D

Offline LC5F

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Re: Slipping out of 1st & reverse gears
« Reply #5 on: August 08, 2020, 01:39:59 pm »
bled the clutch until blue in the face and it's still doing it.

Try reverse bleed, from the slave up, the fluid is then working with the air bubbles - old fashioned pump oiler can and some clear hose

I am struggling to get Youtube links to work, the Dieselgeek vid is the one I posted, but comes up invalid in my post above.
Here's a good guide for reverse bleed - and hydraulic clutches in general
=193
« Last Edit: August 08, 2020, 01:44:10 pm by LC5F »

Offline mickmurphy92

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Re: Slipping out of 1st & reverse gears
« Reply #6 on: August 12, 2020, 11:14:36 pm »
The sump on my GTI (AXX engine) is definitely attached to the gearbox, attaching picture wont work, see below link to similar



https://picclick.co.uk/VW-Golf-GTi-20-Mk5-AXX-sump-pan-223987051768.html#&gid=1&pid=3

Offline LC5F

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Re: Slipping out of 1st & reverse gears
« Reply #7 on: August 13, 2020, 06:46:10 pm »
Those are just bolts to brace the box.
The only way you have misaligned the box by tightening those up would require all the other bolts on the bellhousing to be loose.

Offline pudding

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Re: Slipping out of 1st & reverse gears
« Reply #8 on: August 14, 2020, 04:22:58 pm »
Yeah I don't understand that.  If the other gearbox bolts are tight and you have the gearbox alignment dowels in the block (which I can see you have in that pic, if that's your engine?) there is no way any of the said bolts would misalign.

I'll try the reverse bleed next time, thanks for that. 


2007 ED30 | 2009 TDI 140 | 2016 BMW 330D