2017 GTI manual shifting

Norton said:

I think I will go to the dealer and just see what they say

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Dealers are largely clueless. When my shifter was literally popping out of reverse by itself and allowed me to shift into 1st instead of reverse when I pushed the shifter down, the dealer I went to told me this was normal

I had to take the service advisor into the show room to compare to a new one on the show room floor to see what it was supposed to do before they would even bother to look at my car.

But good luck though.

FWIW: My previous car was a Mazda3 and the shifter was slick, easy to snick through the gears and very precise. The GTI's shifter feels much more mechanical - with (to my mind) a slight "moving the lever through marbles" notchiness - but the motion is always positive and just as precise as the Mazda's. I test drove two GTIs and a 5-sp TSI and they all had a similar feel.

dunkelweizen said:

Dealers are largely clueless. When my shifter was literally popping out of reverse by itself and allowed me to shift into 1st instead of reverse when I pushed the shifter down, the dealer I went to told me this was normal

I had to take the service advisor into the show room to compare to a new one on the show room floor to see what it was supposed to do before they would even bother to look at my car.

But good luck though.

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That's why I ask for an advisor who was a tech or actually knows something. Nowadays that's getting harder to do. Not many women who know which end of a wrench goes on the bolt.

No one wants to go to the trouble of using the same dealership and the same tech or techs.

My GTI also feels very notchy, even compared to my old manual VWs (not GTIs). Once I got used to it, I really liked it. Love that crisp mechanical feel.

Norton said:

I bought this car new and love it. My question is around shifting. I find the shifting, from any gear, to be "notchy". The clutch is not dragging or slipping but when I shift up or down from any gear it is like feeling a hang-up or notch as it goes through the neutral area. It doesn't have any negative effect as I will never race this car but I am just curious if this is normal or if I should take it to the dealer for them to take a look. Thanks for your help

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what did you drive before this? Honda will make you question other mfrs shifters

Interesting, mine doesn't feel notchy at all usually. It's usually so smooth it feels like there is nothing mechanical attached to the shifter, it feels sort of like a video game. However, once in a while I will get a momentary mechanical notchy feeling. Seems like it's normally when shifting into 4th. Occasionally it doesn't go into 4th as easily and I have to kinda push it through slight resistance. I also have this weird issue where sometimes I can accidentally go into reverse instead of 1st even though I didn't push down. I took it to the dealer once for this and of course they couldn't replicate.

robmarktoo said:

Interesting, mine doesn't feel notchy at all usually. It's usually so smooth it feels like there is nothing mechanical attached to the shifter, it feels sort of like a video game.

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+1

My G37 and old LT-1 Firebird where way more notchy and mechanical feeling. The shifter in my R is like air in comparison.

Draining and refilling to Redline MTL tranny oil might be just what the doctor ordered. That's the first thing I did with my 2016 because I felt it was notchier than my 2011. Redline MTL smoothed it right out, shifts like butter, even in the coldest weather. There's something great about the friction coefficients and the syncros. Worked for my 2011 and 2016 GTI, my daughter's 1998 and 1999 New Beetle and both my son's Jeeps as well.

Mine can get notchy at times when its cold but generally is very smooth. Impressed with this aspect of the manual trans.

Where it does come up short is the clutch feel. Many threads on here abput how to address that, including removing the delay valve, but that's a whole different issue.

Fwiw I did pretty much every mod that's supposed to enhance the shifting experience (read my sig) and of course the spring / valve deletes plus changed the fluid at 40k to Motul 300 and I feel like the results are quite good.

Theres definitely a notched "Gated" shift feel now which gets smoother as the car gets warmer. I really like how that feels. There's no resistance or anything of the sort when pushing the lever through the neutral areas. Only when starting to engage / disengage.

The stock setup was perfectly fine except it took a lot of precision to get a smooth 1 to 2 shift. Now its a lot easier to get that one right which is down to the mounts and dogbone eliminating motor movement slop.

I wouldn't mind less clutch vagueness but I'm not replacing that until I have to. I don't need to feel what it's doing anymore because I know what will happen by the extension / tension in my leg now. So, I can live without that feedback until my stock unit goes to heaven.

Just bought a 2018 GTI SE 6MT in September. Now has about 2750 miles.

I like the shifter. I like that I can 'feel' the gear-change action. I prefer this to the overly-smooth, cable-driven feel that you get from Asian cars.

I am a long term BMW (manual) owner. It's worth mentioning that my 'notchy' BMW transmissions lost a lot of the mechanical/notch feel after about 7500 miles of driving.