when my vw jetta is in 5th speed it occaisonally has begun to slip out of gear, I then have to step on the clutch and put it back into gear. Is this a serious problem? Expensive to repair? Also, any recommendations of where to go to get this fixed in the boston area?
Really sounds like a transmission problem (tho possibly a linkage problem). I’ve not had much luck with VW dealers in Boston, so I go to the one in Portsmouth NH, 1 hr drive from Boston. They seem reasonably competent. But since your car is out of warranty, I’d look for an independent repair shop.
Car talk has a database of shops, see http://www.cartalk.com/content/mechx/find.html
If Portsmouth, NH area I would highly suggest European Auto Service in Rye, NH on Sagamore ave. Its a small place but made owning a VW Jetta GLI an absolute pleasure. I have known many happy VW owners likely due to this great shop.
The rates are much better than local VW dealer and I had better luck fixing issues and much better pricing.
thanks for the info and endorsement! My Passat is just getting out of warranty and I’m looking for just such a place. I’ll give them a look see.
It’s probably internal and related to a worn shift fork or worn gear hub assembly. Driving around with your hand resting on the gearshift lever is not a good idea if you are prone to doing this. This habit can cause a problem like you now have.
I’m not saying that you have this bad habit; only that it’s something to think about if you do.
Is that problem still around? It should be easy to design a linkage (or a transmission) to eliminate the problem and I’m surprised the designers have not.