gears have moved?

[vw_golf_nutter]

hi all,
sorry last question for now
my gti 16v has issues with the gears. it doesnt crunch or anything but first gear is practically where reverse is and hard to find, sometimes i get reverse by accident, also 2nd isnt straight down from 1st its across more so its as is 1st and 3rd have shuffled left and 2nd and 4th have shuffled right lol
the gear linkage rods have been changed. is this a common thing?

[Waspy]

My instant responce was linkages. When I bought my golf it was a lucky dip which gear I got (luckily the 8v can handle that), but it was resolved when I did the linkages. Who did them? And when? And did they do EVERYTHING? It's pretty easy and cheap, see what others say, but that sounds like the linages/bushes.

[Steve_B]

Sounds like it wasn't aligned properly after the linkage was changed. Read the guide in the maintenance section if you fancy trying it yourself, if not take it back to whoever did it.

[vw_golf_nutter]

the guy who owned the car before me done them on his drive, you can see they are new but thing he literally replaced the rods and that was that. so they need adjusting then? and what/where are these bushes? is that something seperate i can ask to be changed at a garage?

[Waspy]

Have a read of this. I don't know where the pic have gone, but its still a good write up. Sounds like the PO did a bit of a half arsed job.

http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=33100.0

The bushes need replacing and it needs to be aligned properly. I did this job when I first got the car, so had nil experience, and found it reasonably easy. Unsure how a garage would handle the job. So far every time I have taken then car in for something other than regular jobs like bearings etc they have struggled. Maybe I just have terrible garages around me...