Car won't go into first gear

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Hi, would you like the phone number of my mechanic boss so that you may called him a dickhead too?
BTW he is 6'3 tall weight 17 stone and goes tlifting at tbebgumnasium i

If he thinks loss of first gear has anything to do with HGF then yes, he's a dickhead just like you.

Reply 21

Nuffles

Original post by JC.

Good call.
Golfs are known for going through linkage bushes. I suppose it's possible you've shaved a few teeth of the first gear set through forcing it in, but it'd make sense to check the consumables first.

Although worth checking the clutch cable is correctly adjusted. I believe it's a cable on golfs and not hydraulic? It certainly is on a first gen Audi TT which is supposedly the same thing?

It's a bit hit and miss with the clutch. Golfs usually had a cable clutch, and Passats were usually hydraulic, but at this point in time the Golf and the Passat shared platforms (late 80's-early 2000s) and I believe there were cars built with certain engine/gearbox combinations with the reversed setup. Most petrol Golfs had solid linkages between the stick and box, whereas most of the TDIs had a cable setup.

Reply 22

Naher007

Original post by Nuffles

The first port of call would be gear linkage bushings or linkage adjustment.

Is it a mk4? (looks like this: )

Apparently 2004 was the last model year so it's conceivable that you may have a super early mk5.

If so, here's a thread discussing difficult selection of first/reverse and the consensus seems to be that changing the gearbox oil works wonders, as does adjusting (or possibly replacing) parts of the linkage.

According to this thread, you can grease up the linkage to help with stiff shifting.

Should be fairly easy with a couple of spanners and a mate to sit inside the car and select different gears so you can see what's going on under the bonnet! Also, Google works wonders for this kinda thing :wink:

Cheers for the advice it's an early MK5 :smile:

Reply 23

Nuffles

Original post by Naher007

Cheers for the advice it's an early MK5 :smile:

In that case the gearbox linkages will most likely be very similar, but not identical. Get someone to sit inside the car and change into different gears and look under the bonnet for the bits that are moving around as they do so. Take a picture of the movey bits and we can work out whether it's a rod linkage or a cable linkage.