Hi. Basically i bought kerrlys awesome polo yesterday but I'm havin a problem with the gearbox. It will be fine for about 5 - 10 minutes but then it becomes progressively harder to select any of the gears until sometimes i cant find any and i have to stop and put my hazards on. Its intermitent though as i turn the engine off, dip the clutch a few times, and twiddle with the gear knob for a bit and it seems to sort itself out. And sometimes when it starts to become stiffer i just ease it back out and into gear and it rectifies the problem.

It never does it from cold, ie when i first set out

I'm thinkin it could either be a damaged gearbox mounting (ie the gearbox moves out of place ever so slightly) or the gaits being slightly out of line. Or maybe the linkage bushes? Any ideas.

I'm gonna jack it up tomorrow and get a nice big bar under there and giv it a prod to see if anything is loose (about the limit to my mechanical skill lol). Anyone got any other ideas?

Cheers guys

Edited 21 September, 200817 yr by -Ashley-

get under teh car and check the linkage the ball may have disintergrated.

easy to replace though

Does it jump out of gear at all?

NO it never jumps out of gear and doesnt clunk with harsh acceleration??!! It does jump a little bit (as in the gear knob moves a bit) but it never jumps out of gear. Can anyone get a picture of the linkage ball? I'm a bit of a mechanical halfwit!!

its a round ball the size of a golfball and its surrounded buy a square metal cage attached to a rod that goes from the underbody of the car were the gearshifter would be in the cabin

Ok mate i will check that tomorrow, will i be doing more damage to it by driving it?

Ok mate i will check that tomorrow, will i be doing more damage to it by driving it?

yes as it will desintergrate it more

look on vagparts or gsf for another ball.

hmmm ok i will try that, cheers bud. Any other ideas??

Ashley

I got the same problem described here, i can twist my gear stick nearly 180 degrees and it dont seem right does this mean my ball has damage too. any 1 got a part number or know where to get a kit to fix the ball joint????

how much oil is there in there!

full as i checked

yeah if there's not much oil in it it'll kill the box fairly rapidly.

well, depends, it can leak out..like the selector shaft oil seal can go...so it drains out slowly. sometime without even noticing. and before long you have no gears!

just have to wait n see what it looks like underneath, could be just the shaft need adjusting or tightening

if it is low on oil then it'll normally make noises such as rattling and/or whining. Best off checking it anyway, only need to remove a 17mm hex plug and see if the oil is up to the bottom of it.

or 17mm wheel nut n a spanner :)

pikey way

Why would the sahft need adjusting and if so what would need adjsuting?

also why/what would make me be able to turn my gear stick/knob round in circle a bit and dont seem right, thus mkaing it hard to get the right gear somtime.

if its come loose after going over a bump or hitting some debree

is the knob on tight? lol

yes the knob is on tight mate, you can twist the gear stick from say 10pm to 2am on the clock dial(if you catch my drift)

never know other cars do this so I'm trying to find out why and what i need to fix to stop it?

they move abit i think, that sounds too much

am saying sumats worn!

yep just trying to work out what, checked the rod connector block and all seems fine, so thinking might need to replace the ball maybe?

I had this exact thing, turned out that it was the clutch cable. I replaced it and it sorted the problem instantly.

Its not clutch cable as that is new, and how would my clutch cable let/make my gear stick turn on its self??

^^

I was replying to Ashley's first post

Yeah he was replying to my post, not yours... hijacker :p.

Errrm i dont think its the gearbox oil because it would whine / rattle if it was surely? And the clutch was done this easter!!! So I'm thinkin its the linkage.

My problem is nothin like GARETHWATFORD's, my gearknob is very tight and there is no play at all. All i know is that the problem is getting worse. Had to stop twice this mornin.

Oh yeah and also its fine when the engine is off, can stroll through the gears nice n smooth?!

I'm confused!!!

hmm, sounds clutch related to me. Where abouts is your bite point? If it's right at the bottom then maybe the cable needs adjusting slightly.