Hard to shift gears

[HippoCelestial]

Hello, I own a 2014 Golf 1.4 tsi highline built in mexico fitted with a manual gearbox. It's my first car and it was previously owned by my brother. Since I got the car last year at ~67000km I noticed I had to put some strength to shift from some gear to another, not like any other manual car I've driven. Sometimes when I put it in reverse it makes a weird noise and vibrates like it's scratching or scraping. Before you ask, I'm engaging the clutch properly. It's not pleasent to shift gears, feels like I'm forcing them to engage, it does not feel "natural" at all.

What can it be? I don't wanna take it to some mechanic I don't know. What can I test to check for one type of problem?

 

[jimlloyd40]

Hello, I own a 2014 Golf 1.4 tsi highline built in mexico fitted with a manual gearbox. It's my first car and it was previously owned by my brother. Since I got the car last year at ~67000km I noticed I had to put some strength to shift from some gear to another, not like any other manual car I've driven. Sometimes when I put it in reverse it makes a weird noise and vibrates like it's scratching or scraping. Before you ask, I'm engaging the clutch properly. It's not pleasent to shift gears, feels like I'm forcing them to engage, it does not feel "natural" at all.

What can it be? I don't wanna take it to some mechanic I don't know. What can I test to check for one type of problem?

Ask your brother to drive it and see if he thinks it's different from when he owned it.

And welcome to the forum.

 

[HippoCelestial]

He lives very far away nowadays (that's why I got the car haha). He said it was a smooth shift when he owned (the car ran about only 200km in the year that he moved and I didn't have a license yet). It's noticibealy the opposite of smoother from any other manual car I've driven, my family owned 2 Renaults up until recently and they were inferior cars with a gearbox smooth as a butter compared to my golf.

 

[El_bigote_AJ]

Hello, I own a 2014 Golf 1.4 tsi highline built in mexico fitted with a manual gearbox. It's my first car and it was previously owned by my brother. Since I got the car last year at ~67000km I noticed I had to put some strength to shift from some gear to another, not like any other manual car I've driven. Sometimes when I put it in reverse it makes a weird noise and vibrates like it's scratching or scraping. Before you ask, I'm engaging the clutch properly. It's not pleasent to shift gears, feels like I'm forcing them to engage, it does not feel "natural" at all.

What can it be? I don't wanna take it to some mechanic I don't know. What can I test to check for one type of problem?

Try to adjust the linkage first.

 

[HippoCelestial]

I will look into it.

I forgot to mention on my first post that the transmission does not feel jiggly if it is in neutral, it stays perfectly in place. Also, you know where first, third and fifth gears are in or second, fourth and sixth, it does not have "play". The feeling I get from shifting is a mechanical engagement of gears, not a smooth one, like I'm trying to join two things that do not match.

 

[Daks]

I will look into it.

I forgot to mention on my first post that the transmission does not feel jiggly if it is in neutral, it stays perfectly in place. Also, you know where first, third and fifth gears are in or second, fourth and sixth, it does not have "play". The feeling I get from shifting is a mechanical engagement of gears, not a smooth one, like I'm trying to join two things that do not match.

It's the post that he gave you above, that's what's wrong.

 

[HippoCelestial]

Done the linkage adjustment twice, only a minor improvement. For a comparison, my family onwned a 2004 golf mk4 1.6 generation trim back with far smoother, felt like the gears were "sucked" into the position.

Any other ideas?

 

[golfdave]

Align the shifter mech as above in the video...

VW changed the parts in the gear linkage (under the gearstick) from metal to plastic for the Mk7....& these make lots of play in the system....& makes alignment of the shifter mech harder.....so most people swap parts out & fit the dieselgeek superpin & delrin bushes & various other parts to make it have no play & smooth..

But it sounds like you could have problems with the gear shift mechanism on the top of the gearbox if it all feels stiff....or internally inside the gearbox..

 

[Raguvian]

Your throw out bearing could be toast and not disengaging the clutch all the way.

 

[El_bigote_AJ]

Your throw out bearing could be toast and not disengaging the clutch all the way.

Valid thought too.


OP - when the car is off does it shift through gears fine? The idea that something Internal like the synchros or the gear crowns and worn down would be far fetched in this scenario since you said it’s noticed will all gears…

I will say the way you describe reverse still sounds more like a shifter linkage issue or misalignment still.

 

[Subliminal]

Regarding reverse: occasionally my shifter would only go into reverse about half way, one time i tried letting off the clutch with it only half-engaged and it made a sound that i didn't like at all (similar to what you described) so I immediately put it back into N and then into R again making sure it went in all the way. perhaps that's part of your problem?

And honestly the alignment may take a few tries before getting it right. I had to remove the (side-to-side) plastic bracket from the cable, pull the cable out towards the front of the car as much as i could, then reinstall the bracket and then re-aligned the shifter again before finally getting it right

 

[HippoCelestial]

I don't feel much play when shifting.

During my brother's ownership, the car used to make a weird sound continuosly, at that time it was under guarantee, vw thought it was the clutch and replaced it. The sound persisted and the whole gearbox was substituted (my father said the problem was in the "bearing" but couldn't specify which one, it was supposedly wearing out the material around it, metal I guess, and making this sound), the clutch was substituted again.

All gears shift harshly, on or off.

I did the alignement with a 5mm drill, not a pin or a bolt. I did it 3 times, I shall try one more when I buy a proper 5mm round cylinder.

The not all engaged reverse happened a few times, but more often than that the car makes a noise like a mechanical fart and engages fully.

What I'm considering is checking out another manual 1.4 golf, but I don't know anyone who owns one and there are only a couple for sale in my area.

Thank you for the replies.

 

[911nick]

I just replaced the clutch and throw out bearing on my GTI. What prompted me to do so was the fact that shifting into reverse became impossible. 1st gear was nearly impossible, and the other gears were becoming increasingly stiff and difficult to shift. Your car is likely due for a new clutch and TOB.

 

[Bigsmallguy]

Did you ever get this figured out? I have very sloppy shifts, and specifically going into 3rd from neutral is a 2 step notchy process, like 1/3 of the way rolls over a notch/bump, then finally goes all the way into the 3rd gear slot.