Hi all, the 99’ VW I just bought has an odd feeling in the shifter every now and then. It happens about 50% of the time and is most noticeable in the lower gears. When shifting there is sometimes a little resistance in the shift lever when going into the next higher gear. This is sometimes accomp…

My guess is there is mechanical wear of the shift mechanical system. How many miles on your bug? Mostly city or highway miles?

Most FWD stick shift cars use a cable shifter similar to the mechanism that moves outside rear-view mirrors…When they wear or are incorrectly adjusted, shifting can become vague and difficult. You can test the clutch for “dragging” by shifting into reverse…It should slip in with no gear grinding. If…

The car has about 126k miles and has mostly been driven in the city. Is there a way to judge when the clutch cylinders are about to fail completely or am I already in that zone? It feels normal when I put it into reverse and it doesn’t seem to make the “thunk” sound either. It just happens in the…

Master & slave cylinders are generally much easier to get to than the clutch itself.

If it were the hydraulic system, you wouldn’t be able to get it into reverse at all unless the engine was not running…

That’s good to know, I hope it turns out to be something minor (and cheap!). I had a bit of sticker shock browsing through this car’s repair records haha. I appreciate your help everyone. It’s always worrisome when there’s some noise or issue that you’ve never had before.

Would you trust this clutch?

Maintenance/Repairs

circuitsmith February 12, 2012, 8:22pm 3

The floppiness is worn out shift lever linkage bushings.
The clunk sounds like the clutch isn’t fully disengaging, due to a weak clutch cable or worn out clutch master and slave cylinders.

Topic		Replies	Views
Stick shift paranoia General Discussion	10	1358	February 23, 2009
Hard shifting 2009 Jetta Maintenance/Repairs	7	9009	September 27, 2018
Manual transmission not shifting smooth when cold Maintenance/Repairs	20	8809	March 30, 2019
Manual Transmission Shifting Problems Maintenance/Repairs	13	1703	July 21, 2015
Car Repair Maintenance/Repairs toyota , camry	13	1113	August 13, 2010

Would you trust this clutch?

Related topics