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Sometimes I struggle to get the car into 5th gear.
It seems to be better when I really shove it into gear
when I am going fast. All other gears are fine.

Anyone else have this problem?

I was wondering about changing the gearbox oil.

My reverse requires some force too. From what I gather, the dealer should be able to adjust the gearchange mechanism, or even add some grease to help things along. They couldn't help me out btw, saying the box was just poorly built - it's used on Mk3 1.4 Golfs too so they claimed they knew about it.

The cure for reverse gear is to put it into 4th just before you put it into reverse. Apparently this is a common thing on new VW boxes

Thanks Alex,

I will have a chat with my brother,
he was a VW technician (comes in handy sometimes!)

Very handy!

Must get me some decent hookups too

I'll try that trick btw Neil - I'm always afraid of that crunching noise when I'm backing up...

I find it helps on mine to get 2nd before 1st when starting off too...

The 5th gear thing is apparently quicte serious though according to some other boards I've seen - you could lose the gear entierly. Just a simple lack of gear oil prompting an overheat though - easy to fix.

Thanks Tahrey,

Would a change of gearbox oil solve the 5th problem then?

i sometimes have difficulty getting mine into 2nd. only happens every blue moon but I have to rag it into gear!

its normal to get a crunch going into reverse cos its a straight cut gear.

mite try that putting it into 4th thing tho

Tried the '4th gear' trick, but it didn't help me much to be honest. I'll try the other gears too...