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ive recently noticed a problem in my car, when u put it in reverse, it sometimes doesnt fall in the reverse gear properly and probably gets stuck in between 1st gear and reverse or something. when you bring it up to byting point, it sort of produces an awful quite loud grinding noise. what could this be? any1 had this b4? i drive properly and dont slip the clutch like many people do do, so it should happen really?

also when driving and u change to the four gear, you get funny noise from outside the car, kinda like when to metal things are loose, and they scrape against each other? is this possibily linked to this?

what could it be and how much would it cost to fix approx?? cheers

could possibly be your gear linkage mate

Thanks 4 ure reply dude. thats what some1 else told me. Is it usually costly / does it require any parts to sort out. Sorry i dont have much knowledge on the gearbox side so kinda puzzled. But if its something thats adjustable, i may try n sort it with a haynes.

i get that noise, when i put it in reverse, but i havnt pushed it in far enough.

Sure your not shoving it in hard enough?

i know it can be adjusted by spanners from under the car, but be careful, need to know what u doing, wouldnt be a costly job with mechanic, just might need slight adjustment, as for reverse, the push down is always v.important, take time and select reverse slowly, if u try this slowly with clutch full to floor u shouldnt get problem! le tme know how u get on!

Dodgy clutch cable or wrong tensioning of the cable?

Na, i do very carefully and slowly push it down and take it towards the left and up whilst having my foot completely down on the clutch pedal (no slipping the clutch) still does it. I know its kinda meant 2 do that, cause when i test drived my mk4 i slipped the clutch and kinda rushed putting it in reverse, and so it did this. But it never did it when doing it properly. thanks guys, im gonna get it checked hopefully on monday and will let you know what is wrong.

if it's just a side-to-side problem then its fairly easy to fix, just need to get stick and link properly aligned again (may need assistant) and then tighten the bolt right up from underneath - assuming it's a solid linkage not cable.

back'n'forth problem is something possibly trickier...

seen a couple a three of these spring up in the warm weather, funny enough thats when i had trouble - i think the heat makes things expand and causes the grease to get a bit runnier...

hmmm thinking onwards from that
you have to remember to give it a second in neutral with the clutch down, of course, to give all the whirling cogs chance to come to a halt, or at least slow down enough for you to push them into engagement - as reverse has no synchromesh but still works on the old "crash box" principle.

if it wont go in first time lift clutch briefly (like half a second or less) then push it back down 'n try again