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DFQ won't go into gear

1085 Views 11 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  Broke
I ought my GTI about three weeks ago. When I got it home it had a slow leak from the speedometer cable. I replace that and put about a half quart back into the tranny. Since then the car ran fine.
Yesterday after I got off the highway on the way to work the gears became harder to get into. Eventually I could not get into 1st and barely into 2nd. I got the car towed home and drained the gear oil, replaced with new. Up the street drove better than ever, smooth and easy. I shut the car off to talk to my neighbor and when I started back up I couldnt get into gear easily.
Problem: When off, goes through the gears fine. When running I push and push and there is nothing. I can shake the shifter and it will slid in sometimes or rev match and it goes. There is no grinding at all.

Ideas on if the tranny is bad? or clutch? or linkage?
1 - 12 of 12 Posts
Re: DFQ won't go into gear (Sketchy-B)

Someone make my day and say it could be as simple as the linkage bushings......
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Re: DFQ won't go into gear (Sketchy-B)

Any noises? It sounds like something with the clutch to me ......What is the dfq off of? Maybe its a clutch adjustment?


Modified by TheCooler at 9:35 AM 8-5-2008
Re: DFQ won't go into gear (TheCooler)

The only thing I don't understand though, is that I can shift it into gear while the car is off, keep the clutch in, start it and the clutch holds engauged until I release it
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Re: DFQ won't go into gear (Sketchy-B)

Is it hydraulic or cable clutch?
Re: DFQ won't go into gear (TheCooler)

put it in 4th let the clutch out, if it stalls ur clutch is working since 4th gear is a 1:1 gear ratio, at this point u come to the conclusion that the problem is inside ur tranny.
Re: DFQ won't go into gear (TheCooler)

Cable
Re: DFQ won't go into gear (JettaTurbo20)

Quote, originally posted by JettaTurbo20 »
put it in 4th let the clutch out, if it stalls ur clutch is working since 4th gear is a 1:1 gear ratio, at this point u come to the conclusion that the problem is inside ur tranny.

I'm not sure I follow this? The clutch is working as I stated before. Of course it will stall when I release in 4th or 3rd or even 2nd for that matter with no pressure on the accelorator
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Re: DFQ won't go into gear (Sketchy-B)

throw out bearing? Clutch cable? Pressure Plate? Those are my three guess'
Re: DFQ won't go into gear (Sketchy-B)

Quote, originally posted by Sketchy-B »
Problem: When off, goes through the gears fine. When running I push and push and there is nothing. I can shake the shifter and it will slid in sometimes or rev match and it goes. There is no grinding at all.

It sounds like the clutch isn't fully disengaging.
Selecting reverse should result in a grind if the clutch isn't 100% disengaged, so if reverse grinds, it's the clutch.
What cable do you have, auto adjust or manual adjust?
Quote, originally posted by Sketchy-B »
Someone make my day and say it could be as simple as the linkage bushings......

If the linkage was bad, it wouldn't properly select the gears when off, the linkage sounds fine.
Quote, originally posted by Sketchy-B »
The only thing I don't understand though, is that I can shift it into gear while the car is off, keep the clutch in, start it and the clutch holds engauged until I release it

The clutch isn't dragging enough to move the car while the pedal is depressed and held. It is slipping the clutch basically... it is trying to spin the input shaft, because it is faulty and dragging, but the weight of the car is too much resistance, so the clutch slips.
When you try to select a gear, you're using the sync rings to match shaft speeds, which means it uses friction to try and slow the input shaft down to match the speed of the output shaft (which, when the car isn't moving, the output isn't moving) which means slowing the input shaft to a dead stop so the gear can engage.
With a good clutch, as soon as you depress the pedal, the input shaft stops... with your car, it is continuing to rotate. You try to select a forward gear, the sync ring tries to use friction to slow the input shaft, it can't offer enough resistance to overcome the dragging clutch, so the input doesn't get stopped, and the gear doesn't get selected.
Check the cable adjustment, and if that is OK, and it still won't fully disnegage, then you'll have to start looking at the release arm on the trans, see where it sits, and then inspect the clutch parts for some reason as to why they aren't disengaging.
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Re: DFQ won't go into gear (Broke)

Quote, originally posted by Broke »

It sounds like the clutch isn't fully disengaging.
Selecting reverse should result in a grind if the clutch isn't 100% disengaged, so if reverse grinds, it's the clutch.
What cable do you have, auto adjust or manual adjust?

Broke you have been music to my ears twice now. Very helpful as usual http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif

Reverse does in fact grind when engaged. It started off every once and a while, then a little more. Now with this current problem, so much so that you cannot put it in reverse.
The cable is a manual adjust but is a little rusty and loose.
With the DFQ in the 16v which cable should I buy? mk3 8v? mk2
I will replace this first and go from there.
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Re: DFQ won't go into gear (Sketchy-B)

Quote, originally posted by Sketchy-B »
The cable is a manual adjust but is a little rusty and loose.

They should be a bit loose... http://www.brokevw.com/releasearm.html has info on how to adjust but it should have some slack in the cable. http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif
Quote, originally posted by Sketchy-B »
With the DFQ in the 16v which cable should I buy? mk3 8v? mk2

MK2 cable for your car, the trans won't change anything. If the cable doesn't sort it out, check to see where the release arm gets solid at when lifted by hand, and if that all checks out, then you'd have to inspect the clutch parts themselves for the cause of the problem.
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