A2 1.4 TDI suddenly stuck in 1st gear.

H

Howdy Ay 2

A2OC Donor
Good afternoon.


Our son borrowed our A2 to go shopping late last night.

On the way home whilst driving downhill on a narrow road in 3rd gear he had to slow down to negotiate some parked cars.

He tried to change down to 2nd gear but could not so managed to carry on in 3rd gear until he had to stop for another parked car on a steep uphill incline . He then found that the only gearstick positions available were neutral and 4th gear. When he tried to release the clutch in 4th the A2 rolled backwards. When he released the clutch in neutral the engine stalled.

When I attended after a fair amount of fiddling I managed to select 1st gear position on the gearstick then with clutch depressed, started the engine and was able to limp home in 1st gear. No other gears can be selected whilst moving and the A2 will not freewheel at all unless the clutch is depressed.

The A2 has been driving really well with no rough or stiff gear changes or clutch problems so this has come as a shock just before Christmas too!

Has anyone had similar sudden problems or could offer a diagnosis please?


Thank You
 
First place to start is to check the selector cables are still fitted correctly and all brackets are secure. An end could have come off one of the cables completely throwing the travel out as could a bracket. There could be more than one fault but confirming the selector cables is the first step. Is the balance weight also secure on the selector tower?

Have someone sit in the car and slowly select each gear in turn and watch what happens with the cables at the gearbox end.
 
Examination of the ends at the gearbox end need to be carried out in case they are damaged/broken, if they are ok then do a linkage alignment in the first instance.
 
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Manual page. But check all parts are connected and not loose first....


Audi Workshop Service and Repair Manuals > A2 > Power transmission | 5-speed manual gearbox 02T | Gearbox mechanics,operation, construction,diff. | Servicing selector mechanism | Adjusting selector mechanism

A2 > Audi Workshop Service and Repair Manuals > Power transmission | 5-speed manual gearbox 02T | Gearbox mechanics,operation, construction,diff. | Servicing selector mechanism | Adjusting selector mechanism
workshop-manuals.com

Audi Workshop Service and Repair Manuals > A2 > Power transmission | 5-speed manual gearbox 02T | Gearbox mechanics,operation, construction,diff. | Servicing selector mechanism | Removing and installing selector mechanism

A2 > Audi Workshop Service and Repair Manuals > Power transmission | 5-speed manual gearbox 02T | Gearbox mechanics,operation, construction,diff. | Servicing selector mechanism | Removing and installing selector mechanism
workshop-manuals.com
 
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Thanks for the replies.

I have attached photos of the mechanism with cables attached which seem to be intact.

The only gearstick positions seem to be 3rd and 4th so straight up and down at the moment. This is both via the gearstick or via the selector lever in the engine bay.

Does everything seem to be present in the photos please?
 

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Then it has to be selector tower, has the tower been exposed to water ingress ? If the drain cup is missing above the tower and water has got in, the large spring might have snapped and is fouling the mechanism.
 
The drain cup is still in place above the selector tower so hopefully no water ingress.

I will have an attempt at doing the alignment procedure following the PM tomorrow when I get chance.

Thanks again.
 
take off the little black plastic breather cap and pour a little gear oil (or similar) down. Work the tower up and down, back and forth and see if it improves. If it does then may be the replaceable bearing sleeve inside the tower is going, or the two big spring loaded ball bearings inside the tower that the sleeve rotates against may have dried out and stuck. Fairly easy to whip the tower off and take a look for further investigation / lubrication.
 
third to fourth would be a clockwise / anticlockwise rotation of the selector as this is equivalent to fore-aft movements of the gearstick in the double "H" pattern. Movement across the gearlever gate (1/2 to 3/4 and to 5) is the vertical movement of the selector shaft in and out of the gearbox.

Edit : in the photos there you can see the two cables. The left cable (in this view) is attached to the bell crank that through the white plastic shoe in the slider shunts the selector up and down. The right hand cable (in this view) generates the axial rotation of the selector around the shaft (and also moves the counterweight that it is attached to as part of the same casting). I notice that the left cable's ball connector is twisted a bit - possibly because of trying to force the selector up and down when it doesn't want to move?

I had the gearbox on my project car abruptly fail to enter 3rd gear when driving home around 11 months ago. The selector would give me Reverse, 1st and 2nd but nothing going down into the box across the gate. It was easier to swap with a spare GPK box I had after the PTW swap than try to get it properly diagnosed or fixed - possibly selector tower bearing or the spring as suggested above as the drain cup was absent when I got the car. With the bonnet off, I was easily able to rotate the selector clockwise / anticlockwise through the whole range, and lift it upwards to engage 'reverse', but pushing it down into the box beyond the plane of 1/2 was impossible.
 
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Managed to attempt to adjust the gearbox selector cables on the A2 a number of times this afternoon.

The selector arm appears to be moving nice and freely as it should including up and down.

There has been some improvement as we are no longer stuck in 1st gear so can now idle in neutral.
The gearstick appears to have full range now whereas following the breakdown we only had movement between 3rd and 4th gear.

We can select any gear at the gearstick end now with clutch depressed but with engine running we have not been able to get it to stay in 1st, 4th or 5th gear it keeps jumping out or the gear starts to grind as the clutch is released slowly.

2nd and 3rd gear seem to be engaging fine, reverse is difficult to engage.

Will try adjusting again tomorrow when we get chance.

Could there be something loose or broken at the gearstick end of the cables as the gear stick movement is quite clunky at the moment.

Further suggestions are most welcome.


Thank You
 
Have a look at the dieselgeek videos and similar on youtube : granted their main aim is to sell you their repair / upgrade kits but the key thing is they explain all the mechanism that lies beneath your gear lever in the standard form as well as their improvements, where the various bushings and small bits of plastic are that can wear and give slop / play and selection difficulties, as well as what goes on at the gearbox end. Arguably what you are describing doesn't sound gear-lever-y ; wear in those bits mostly manifest in the gearlever feeling like stirring a pot of soup rather than something mechanical ; instead my instinct is still something in the selector tower or the gates below that has come loose or broken. The clue about staying in gear / jumping out when engine-running versus not should be informative to someone who knows what they are talking about.
 
When adjusting the linkages try engaging the pin on the gearbox selector tower only, then go into the car and see what movement you have with the gearstick. It should be fixed in one position, but your description suggests that it may still have some movement. Report back with the results and we’ll see if that gives us any further ideas to fix the issue.
 
Another thing to try is disconnect both cables, then select one of the "bad" gears on the selector tower ( you will need to work out where the tower should be, select the corresponding gear on the gear stick and try to connect the cables. If they clip straight back on then the cables are secure and correctly adjusted FOR THAT GEAR. Now repeat with the other "bad" gears, as soon as you find the cables not wanting to clip straight back on then you will have to check the cables. If the tower will not select the gear then probable a seized component in the tower shaft.

The cable adjustment process if following the instructions is quite straight forward. The only thing I do differently is I apply very slight pressure before twisting the locks on the springs.
 
With cables released and only the selector tower locked we then tried to move the gearstick through all positions.

1st and reverse are difficult to engage, 4th would not hold in position, springing back and 5th was also difficult to engage.

We then locked the gearstick, re-attached the cables, released the selector tower lock and tried again with clutch depressed.

1st and reverse difficult to engage, 2nd seemed Ok, 3rd and 4th springing back and 5th really difficult.

From the engine bay, when connected to the cables it seems as though the selector lever is not travelling far enough to fully engage 1st, the selector does go down a level but doesn't seem to travel quite far enough, 2nd seems OK. The lever is easy enough to gently push so that it rotates further to 1st.

For 3rd and 4th the selector lever seems to lift up as it should but does not travel far enough. If I give a gentle push it will travel to 4th position but jumps back out. Whilst in 4th we released the cable put tension on it then reattached the clamp then had little or no movement at the gearstick.

Another thing our son noticed is that when everything is attached, manually moving the selector lever into 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th positions the gearstick does seem to move into those corresponding positions.

With engine running we cannot fully engage 1st, (grinding) even when holding it in position, 2nd seems fine, 3rd, 4th 5th and reverse do not engage. Again the selector lever seems to move freely including up and down.
 
Howdy Ay 2 said:
With cables released and only the selector tower locked we then tried to move the gearstick through all positions.

1st and reverse are difficult to engage, 4th would not hold in position, springing back and 5th was also difficult to engage.
Click to expand...
With the cables released in the engine bay, the gearstick should have no problem moving to any position. It will have some resistance when moving across the gate and will 'self-centre', but all positions should be easy to obtain. If you are seeing some restriction in this situation then to me this points towards the cables being damaged, or something limiting the movement within the gearstick mechanism itself.

Can you try locking the tower with the cables attached and see if you have any free movement at the gearstick?
 
So just to clarify... When you disconnect the cables from the gearbox you are having difficulty selecting gears from the gear stick - this implies either the cables are not correctly routed in the brackets or the cables have damage. There could be an issue with the base of the gear stick.

The gearstick should move freely and smoothly in all gears if disconnected.

With the engine off and the cables disconnected from the gearbox end can you manually rotate the selector tower and engage all gears? Again only a small resistance as each gear is fully selected.

If you just connect one cable does that allow full left / right or forward back movement on the selector tower. And do you get the same result when you disconnect that cable and connect the other one?

Has any work been done on the car in the area of the cables?

When you do the cable adjustment as per the manual, does it correctly adjust?
 
Does one of the cables look like this and are all the bolts tight?

1639761678823.png


Is there any play in this bracket for the other cable, think there is a little bush inside that wears...


1639761773078.png


Audi Workshop Service and Repair Manuals > A2 > Power transmission | 5-speed manual gearbox 02J | Gearbox mechanics,operation, construction,diff. | Servicing selector mechanism | Exploded view - removing and installing selector cables

A2 > Audi Workshop Service and Repair Manuals > Power transmission | 5-speed manual gearbox 02J | Gearbox mechanics,operation, construction,diff. | Servicing selector mechanism | Exploded view - removing and installing selector cables
workshop-manuals.com
 
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