[s-cars] gearbox woes

[The CyberPoet]

Rokas queried:

Hey everyone! Ever since I bought my 95.5 S6(with the standard tranny,
no
upgrades) back in August, gearbox feel has gotten worse.  It has now
gotten
to the point that it will not slide smoothly into any gear even when
warm
and requires a fair amount of force to shift into second and fourth when
cold. Sometimes(and this is the most bothersome), it WILL NOT go into
first
or reverse. Car stationary, clutch all the way in, the shifter just
hits a
wall. It goes in on maybe the fifth try. Very very disconcerting. I
changed
the gearbox lube and refilled with fresh MT-90 three weeks ago. The
gearbox
as a whole feels just feels very clunky and imprecise. When shifting
thru
the gears in a parking lot with the engine running, rather loud
clicking can
be heard outside of the car, especially when shifting into second. Is
all of
this a common problem? What can I do to fix it? Thanks so much,


Marc Responds:

Although I am not able to rule out possible problems within
the transmission itself, the symptoms sound like a classic
example of a misaligned or worn shifter linkage, where it
is not lining up with the shift gates any longer because of
a worn nylon ball joint and wear/age/setting nut shift or
bent shaft.

I've seen this occur on various VAG vehicles (including our
former VW Golf, where no one except us could drive it
because the shift gates were totally gone and it was a
matter of muscle-memory to get it to shift at all, much
less correctly).

The good news is that it is (by comparison to a failing
tranny) an inexpensive and easy fix. The bad news is that
it isn't really inexpensive unless you can find an
aftermarket kit (stealer pricing was outrageous compared to
after market kits for the Golf -- $300 stealer vs after
market at $27 kit + $25 for the alignment guide tool -- and
I can't imagine Audi's stealer parts will be any cheaper).
If you're lucky, you might be able to reuse the parts you
currently have, if they haven't been damaged too far by the
forced shifting, or you may find the after market
shifter-linkage kit from some VW will match your needs
(look for common platform & tranny).

So, disassemble the shifter cover and arm-rest island, take
a close look at the shifter linkages and shifter gate, and
then go from there.

Cheers
=-= Marc Glasgow

813 Tampa USF Temple Terrace Mac Macintosh Consultant
www.cyberpoet.net