I am the proud owner of my 2nd VW. The first was a 2000 Jetta and now I am in a 2002 GTI. I have been impressed with the turbo and pleased with the car's performance overall.
About 3 weeks ago my GTI started popping out of 5th gear occasionally and then it got to where it would not stay in 5th at all. Now it wont go into 5th at all, it will move into the gate, but its like it is missing the gear a little, maybe its misaligned or either the gear is totally screwed.
All the other gears work perfectly, I have tried adjusting the linkages, but with no success at all.
I hope that there is something I can do besides rebuild the tranny, it drives fine thru the forward 4 gears, but I have tried to let it sit until I can figure out a better option.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

bad news dude, sounds like its pootched. In your tranny theres something called syncros, which stop your gears from grinding when you put it in gear, and they also keep them in gear while you drive. if it kept popping out it sounds like your syncros were going and are now completely done for that gear. can you get it into the 5th gear position at all? if you can and it acts like the clutch is still pressed your gear is done as well.

 

When it goes into the 5th gear gate, it feels like it meshes with the gear fine, but when I let the clutch out it feels like it bounces (it feels like it is moving up and down- onto the gear surface and then off) and it has a sound like it is grinding a little, but it is not horrific.
The other gears are peachy.

I appreciate the response. Any ideas would help.


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yeah, sorry but that sounds like the problem. It happend to my 90 golf and it ended up completely destroying the 5th gear, even though the others worked fine.