# Vw golf won't go into reverse

**URL:** <https://community.cartalk.com/t/vw-golf-wont-go-into-reverse/26428>\
**Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\
**Created:** [February 14, 2009, 1:31am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/vw-golf-wont-go-into-reverse/26428 "2009-02-14T01:31:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![fortune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/54ee81/32.png) [@fortune](https://community.cartalk.com/u/fortune)\
**Post date:** [February 14, 2009, 1:31am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/vw-golf-wont-go-into-reverse/26428/1 "2009-02-14T01:31:27Z")

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today my car decided it didn’t want to shift into reverse. i pulled the parking brake, and voila! that “fixed” the problem. it shifted without any trouble. it’s happened twice again today, and once even pulling the hand brake did NOT help. any ideas what’s going on? what i should have repaired?

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**Author:** ![Joseph\_E\_Meehan](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/joseph_e_meehan/32/21_2.png) [@Joseph\_E\_Meehan](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Joseph_E_Meehan)\
**Post date:** [February 14, 2009, 12:28pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/vw-golf-wont-go-into-reverse/26428/2 "2009-02-14T12:28:18Z")

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Manual or automatic transmission? In either case I would suspect the linkage.

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**Author:** ![fortune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/54ee81/32.png) [@fortune](https://community.cartalk.com/u/fortune)\
**Post date:** [February 14, 2009, 1:52pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/vw-golf-wont-go-into-reverse/26428/3 "2009-02-14T13:52:51Z")

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automatic transmission. why does it shift into gears when i pull the parking brake?