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?

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.

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…

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 13, 2012, 8:08pm 7

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

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Would you trust this clutch?

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