VW Golf GTi M reg Clunks into 1st gear.

Hi,
I have a Golf GTi Mreg Uk number plate, its the 2.0 8 valve.
Does anybody, know, what would cause the 1st gear, to almost jump
into gear?
The other gears are fine.
The clutch was replaced 5 months ago.

It seems to randomly happen,or it seems like its random.

Would it be the gearbox, at all ?

Any ideas?

Thanks

> Hi,
> I have a Golf GTi Mreg Uk number plate, its the 2.0 8 valve.
> Does anybody, know, what would cause the 1st gear, to almost jump
> into gear?
> The other gears are fine.
> The clutch was replaced 5 months ago.

No expert but I would hazard a guess that someone has been grinding your
first gear, by trying to use engine braking from 2nd to 1st. For some reason
my golf won't do this till I've come to an almost complete stop. Yet every
other new car I've driven happily goes into 1st while rolling.

On Sun, 25 Jun 2006 17:38:23 GMT, "Joe"
> wrote:

>> Hi,
>> I have a Golf GTi Mreg Uk number plate, its the 2.0 8 valve.
>> Does anybody, know, what would cause the 1st gear, to almost jump
>> into gear?
>> The other gears are fine.
>> The clutch was replaced 5 months ago.
>
>No expert but I would hazard a guess that someone has been grinding your
>first gear, by trying to use engine braking from 2nd to 1st. For some reason
>my golf won't do this till I've come to an almost complete stop. Yet every
>other new car I've driven happily goes into 1st while rolling.
>


Hi,
Does that mean the Gearbox is stuffed ?

What would cause this or, resolve this ?


Regards

Joe > wrote:

> > Hi,
> > I have a Golf GTi Mreg Uk number plate, its the 2.0 8 valve.
> > Does anybody, know, what would cause the 1st gear, to almost jump
> > into gear?
> > The other gears are fine.
> > The clutch was replaced 5 months ago.
>
> No expert but I would hazard a guess that someone has been grinding your
> first gear, by trying to use engine braking from 2nd to 1st. For some reason
> my golf won't do this till I've come to an almost complete stop. Yet every
> other new car I've driven happily goes into 1st while rolling.

Not all cars have synchromesh on 1st gear, even these days.

For example, I can't put our 156 into 1st whilst rolling. It's not all
that uncommon - especially on something a bit older like a MkIII Golf.
--
Steve H 'You're not a real petrolhead unless you've owned an Alfa Romeo'
http://www.italiancar.co.uk - Honda VFR800 - MZ ETZ300 - Alfa 75 TSpark
Alfa 156 2.0 TSpark - Coming Soon ! - COSOC KOTL
BoTAFOT #87 - BoTAFOF #18 - MRO # - UKRMSBC #7 - Apostle #2 - YTC #

Don't know what year golf you have. But the 120 series transmissions all
wont go into first until almost stopped. You can push it, but they clunk in.
"SteveH" > wrote in message
...
> Joe > wrote:
>
>> > Hi,
>> > I have a Golf GTi Mreg Uk number plate, its the 2.0 8 valve.
>> > Does anybody, know, what would cause the 1st gear, to almost jump
>> > into gear?
>> > The other gears are fine.
>> > The clutch was replaced 5 months ago.
>>
>> No expert but I would hazard a guess that someone has been grinding your
>> first gear, by trying to use engine braking from 2nd to 1st. For some
>> reason
>> my golf won't do this till I've come to an almost complete stop. Yet
>> every
>> other new car I've driven happily goes into 1st while rolling.
>
> Not all cars have synchromesh on 1st gear, even these days.
>
> For example, I can't put our 156 into 1st whilst rolling. It's not all
> that uncommon - especially on something a bit older like a MkIII Golf.
> --
> Steve H 'You're not a real petrolhead unless you've owned an Alfa Romeo'
> http://www.italiancar.co.uk - Honda VFR800 - MZ ETZ300 - Alfa 75 TSpark
> Alfa 156 2.0 TSpark - Coming Soon ! - COSOC KOTL
> BoTAFOT #87 - BoTAFOF #18 - MRO # - UKRMSBC #7 - Apostle #2 - YTC #

> Don't know what year golf you have. But the 120 series transmissions all
> wont go into first until almost stopped. You can push it, but they clunk
> in.
> "SteveH" > wrote in message
> ...

P reg golf so slightly younger than the original poster's golf.

>>> The clutch was replaced 5 months ago.
>>
>>No expert but I would hazard a guess that someone has been grinding your
>>first gear, by trying to use engine braking from 2nd to 1st.

> Hi,
> Does that mean the Gearbox is stuffed ?
>
> What would cause this or, resolve this ?

think i've already said, but if the clutch was replaced then it would also
suggest some damage had been caused to the gearbox too. I have no knowledge
of how a gearbox can be repaired, most places will just tell you its cheaper
and easier to just do a swap out.

Most of the VW transmissions I've driven don't like to go into first
until you have come to a(lmost) complete stop.

On 27 Jun 2006 17:30:54 -0700, wrote:

>Most of the VW transmissions I've driven don't like to go into first
>until you have come to a(lmost) complete stop.


Hi Tylernt,
Thanks.
Do you happen to know what type of gearbox is in that car?
M Reg is 1995 i believe, and its the Gti 2.0 8 valve?
If you dont know, what way can i find out ?


Thanks

> If you dont know, what way can i find out ?

http://scirocco.org/gears/ has some VW transmission information.
Probably not what you're looking for but I'm afraid that's all I have.
If you crawl under the car, the 3-letter code should be pretty easy to
find on a shiny flat spot on the bottom of the transmission.

My '78 Rabbit 4-spd was really particular about not going into first
until you came to a COMPLETE stop. My '82 Rabbit 5-spd and '88 Fox
5-spd aren't quite as bad, if you hold the gearshift against the 1st
gear gate as you slow down, it will resist going in until you hit maybe
3MPH.

If yours recently started having this problem I would suspect a worn
1st gear synchro. Switching to synthetic gear oil (Redline for example)
may help. The synchro can be replaced but it will likely be cheaper to
swap in a low-miles used transmission from a junkyard.

I don't know about the MkIII, but earlier cars have two little shift
rods with plastic ends. The plastic wears out and the shifter becomes
sloppy. If MkIIIs have those, replacing yours *might* help. They are
only like USD$10 each. A bushing kit is another $10 or so and that
helps a little bit too.