Difficulty selecting gears in my TDi

Silverpig

Silverpig

Member
Hi all,

I’m having difficulty in selecting all gears in my TDi and it’s increasingly worsening. Gears 2 and 4 don’t seem too bad in comparison, however trying to get reverse, 1, 3 and 5 is pretty tough and to put it into some metaphorical perspective it almost feels like you’re trying to shove a duvet up a drainpipe using a broom handle. You get a gear after some firm shoving but it’s got to the point where my wife can’t or doesn’t want to drive it.

I’m sure this must have been discussed before but I can’t see anything on the group chat. Can anyone advise please?

Thanks
 
I've just changed the gearbox oil in my tdi90.I also was having gear selection issues.After draining just over 3 litres of what can only be described as gooey latte.I also reset cables.This has made a massive improvement to gear selection.Also check if any play in selector tower.In my case it was a historic leak of water going into the gearbox via the selector tower.I now know to keep duck bill vents clean and align the collector cup
 
Ah, the gearbox oil sounds like a likely culprit, I’ll give that a go. Was it fairly straightforward? I had a look at the tower and selector cables and they seem ok, but I’ll give them adjusting a go at some point.
 
Is the selector tower wet. Water makes its way into the bearings making them seize and the rusty water contaminates the gearbox oil. Look for loose brackets before you try to adjust the linkage cables.
 
Silverpig said:
Ah, the gearbox oil sounds like a likely culprit, I’ll give that a go. Was it fairly straightforward? I had a look at the tower and selector cables and they seem ok, but I’ll give them adjusting a go at some point.
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Yes changing the oil was straight forward tbh.My gearbox is a GRJ and the drain plug is accessible when you remove the pressed steel bracket that connects to the"dog bone" rear mount.The fill plug was accessible from the front face of the box to the right side(looking down from nearside headlight).However in my case I had to take the selector tower off so I filled it up from there.I did find out later that on the selector tower there is a black plastic plug.I removed it and found it is a possible refill point.But get advice on that before you try.I think before you tackle the drain and get the refill plug undone first, as you're in trouble if you drain down and can't remove the refill plug.My plugs were 17mm Allen key type,but I think earlier ones are spline type
 
audifan said:
Is the selector tower wet. Water makes its way into the bearings making them seize and the rusty water contaminates the gearbox oil. Look for loose brackets before you try to adjust the linkage cables.
Click to expand...
I’ve read about water getting in and I’ve checked it all out, but it seems fairly clean and the drains seem to be functioning well. I’ll have another look tomorrow morning.
 
Remarkably it has got better without me doing anything, I’m sure the warm, dry weather has helped so I’m thinking it’s clearly damp related. I’ll probably get the gearbox oil changed when I get it serviced to see if it makes anymore difference.
 
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