Bacchanalian
New member
- Location
- Evergreen, CO
Searching around tells me this isn't a completely unheard of issue, but the mechanic at my dealership had not heard of it and claims to have worked there for over 10 years.
Basically, off a cold start I can't get the car into reverse properly. There's no satisfying "pop" when I push down, and it feels like I'm cramming it into 1st. Most of the time it will actually partially engage reverse and start inching backwards as I let off the clutch, but often in this situation the stick will shudder violently, I'll hear a grinding sound, and the stick will pop into neutral. This guy's video on YouTube is very similar to the problem--it'll shudder like this, and if I start backing out, it'll go about a car length and then pop out of gear.
After I run to the store or drive it even a half mile, I can turn it off, park it, and come back out and it slides into reverse just fine.
This is my second GTI in two years (my 2016 got obliterated by hail, so I traded it in for a 2017 rather than wait 6 months on repairs), and the old one never did this. My 2017 has less than 3,000 miles on it. I've only started noticing it in the last few weeks, when the temperatures in my garage have consistently stayed around 50 or below, so I don't know if temperature has anything to do with it. Truly told I half chalked it up to operator error, because I've only driven a manual for 12,000 miles, so maybe I was just doing something wrong, but it keeps happening, only when starting out of my garage, and when I described it to my wife she suddenly had a light bulb too. It happened to her that when she thought for sure she had it in reverse (and she's driven a clutch for several hundred thousand miles, so I know it's not operator error with her), but when she started to let out the clutch it inched forward instead. She put it back in neutral, disengaged and reengaged the clutch and it worked fine. At the time she shrugged it off to her not paying attention, but in retrospect what I'm describing with having trouble "finding" reverse when I first start it was exactly what she experienced.
Anyone have any idea?
Basically, off a cold start I can't get the car into reverse properly. There's no satisfying "pop" when I push down, and it feels like I'm cramming it into 1st. Most of the time it will actually partially engage reverse and start inching backwards as I let off the clutch, but often in this situation the stick will shudder violently, I'll hear a grinding sound, and the stick will pop into neutral. This guy's video on YouTube is very similar to the problem--it'll shudder like this, and if I start backing out, it'll go about a car length and then pop out of gear.
After I run to the store or drive it even a half mile, I can turn it off, park it, and come back out and it slides into reverse just fine.
This is my second GTI in two years (my 2016 got obliterated by hail, so I traded it in for a 2017 rather than wait 6 months on repairs), and the old one never did this. My 2017 has less than 3,000 miles on it. I've only started noticing it in the last few weeks, when the temperatures in my garage have consistently stayed around 50 or below, so I don't know if temperature has anything to do with it. Truly told I half chalked it up to operator error, because I've only driven a manual for 12,000 miles, so maybe I was just doing something wrong, but it keeps happening, only when starting out of my garage, and when I described it to my wife she suddenly had a light bulb too. It happened to her that when she thought for sure she had it in reverse (and she's driven a clutch for several hundred thousand miles, so I know it's not operator error with her), but when she started to let out the clutch it inched forward instead. She put it back in neutral, disengaged and reengaged the clutch and it worked fine. At the time she shrugged it off to her not paying attention, but in retrospect what I'm describing with having trouble "finding" reverse when I first start it was exactly what she experienced.
Anyone have any idea?
