Linkage Emergency!

[wombar]

Hi All,

After an unsucessful attempt to fit a "GEAR LEVER REPAIR KIT" from GSF I took my car to a garage today with the symptoms that it won't go into reverse. For the past month or so I've been having the gear lever stick between gears, but it never crunched going into gear. Funnily enough, reverse is the one gear I've not had a single problem with up until the weekend.

A few people on various forums have told me it's a misaligned linkage which sounds about right because it never cruncehd going into gear and just felt like there was a resistance rather than a problem in the box. My brother has an identical car to me and his linkage is quite rigid, mine on the other hand moves around much more freely.

The garage say it's the gearbox and are quoting me about £800 for a recon box which I think is quite frankly disgraceful. My car is a mk3 golf gti 8v with about 60k on the clock, if it was worth less I'd probably just scrap it if it does indeed need a new gear box.

So a couple questions:

1) Can anyone advise me whether it's possible to replace the linkage and how much might it be?

2) How much should a recon box cost me fitted?

I really need your help with this guys, I've only got a week or so to get it sorted.

Thanks a lot for any replies.

[charri42]

Try another garage???

Is reverse the only gear you have a problem with?

[wombar]

Thanks for the reply. I've still got exactly the same problem but have moved on a bit since my initial post. I've managed to get hold of an alignment tool for the linkage which unfortunately didn't work, I took a fair bit of the linkage apart yesterday but there was nothing obvious causing problems.

I'm going to have one last go at it today and then take it into a different garage. I'll ask them to have a look at the linkage but I'm now starting to this it's the box itself that has gone. Still seems ridiculous as my car has only done 60k, all other gears work fine other than reverse.

[mr wong]

www.247spares.co.uk

www.partfinder.net

try these, for prices of a re-conditioned or gear box out of a write- off. Usually very good and quick!

Hope this helps

[charri42]

Maybe there are some gremlins inside the box itself.
I'm no expert on gearbox problems, but wouldn't this be caused by something relatively minor?? and is it a better idea to have the box removed on and repaired rather than risk the high labour charge of fitting a 2nd hand box that may not be much better??

Was the box making any funny noises (or any noise for that matter) before the latest problems??

My limited knowledge of gear boxes is that if they're knackered they make all sorts of droning noises. Do all the other gears work fine?
maybe something has dislodged / worked lose around the reverse selector?

Hopefully someone who knows a bit more will be along soon... but spending £Â£Ã‚£Ã‚£Ã‚£ on a recond box when yours has 60K and perhaps only a minor fault doesn't seem appealing. Maybe go to a gearbox specialist>? they may be able to diagnose immediately and repair your low mileage unit?

Cars can be such a pain......

[wombar]

The first garage I took it to said there was "internal noise" and they thought something had worked loose.

I've been having problems with the box for a while, but nothing major. Mostly it was sticking going from 1st to 2nd but a quick waggle of the gear stick would usually dislodge it. It used to crunch a little going into 3rd but nothing major, usually only 1 in 10 changes.

I'll have a look for a gearbox specialist around my area(watford), but there seems to be a distinct lack of decent garages within a reasonable driving distance. I don't fancy driving 50 miles to a specialist with the car in the state it's in at the moment.

I don't really know if the box itself has gone, but I'm completely out of ideas now, I can't go another week with the car off the road so I'm taking the car down to another garage on Monday. They say they'll do a free inspection but a new box fitted will cost me £500. It's a Mr Clutch which although I'm sure isn't great will do the job for the remainder of the time I'll have the car(which won't be long once I've got this problem sorted).

All other gears seem to work fine, just reverse has disappeared.

Thanks for your replies.