gear adjust made it worse?

Hello.


we have an Audi A2 TDi 75 in 2004 flavour, on about 136k miles

this week my partner noticed it started being a little tricky to get into 3rd, but not crunching in (so thinking not syncro) it felt like you push it in, and then you push ir a little harder to get it all the way in, like the last little bit of travel was needed.? if that makes sense

So i noticed also water around the shifter tower. could need a oil change as it may be water contaminated... possibly.

First i tried a adjust as per the diesel geek video. locking lever in, cable adjusters pulled back, 5mm drill bit in. pulled the cable a little to remove slack and flicked back the adjusters on both cables.

now its worse, hard to get into second aswell she tells me. DOH!
so i'm going to try this again tomorrow, how hard do you pull the cables? i sprayed duck oil on the area and exercised the tower incase it was that.

maybe i didnt pull the upper cable enough? i did read a thread on here where someone adjusted it manually, just a little tighter or looser i'm not sure now, but made it shift nice....

Any ideas? the fact this made it worse leads me towards this adjustment?

if i get this right, next it'll be gearbox oil, then new clutch in that order.

Any tips? maybe i didnt pull the outer cable enough before releasing?

Cheers

Andy
 
im wondering if i pulled back too hard on the outer cable to remove slack, alot of threads say they just released the springs and hey presto....
 
You shouldn't have to pull back on the cables, you should just reclamp them where they are.
Try it and see if it improves it, but the chances are that the water may have caused a problem with the tower mechanism. Make sure that the plastic cup that catches the water from the bonnet vent is positioned level so that is catches the water, or it goes all over the tower mechanism.

Steve B
 
You shouldn't have to pull back on the cables, you should just reclamp them where they are.
Try it and see if it improves it, but the chances are that the water may have caused a problem with the tower mechanism. Make sure that the plastic cup that catches the water from the bonnet vent is positioned level so that is catches the water, or it goes all over the tower mechanism.

Steve B


Hi Steve,

Just released it this time, and it seems alot better! must have been me preloading the cables by accident before. i followed this from a another thread:

More useful info from Mike (Skipton01)

Quick tip on the cable adjustment:

1. Use as tight a pin to lock the gearstick as you can - the tighter the pin, the better the adjustment.

2. Before you do anything else, unlock the spring retainers on the 2 cables in the engine bay. Then lock off the gearstick, then lock off the shift mechanism on the box.

3. You might well find that 2 adjustments are needed in quick succession - the first may not be adequate.

Cheers,

Mike

on the order of doing things as that is diferant to the diesel geek video, also it was the diesel geek video i saw to pull back on the cables....

anyway, done now, going to take it on a drive and see how i get on, short trip seemed good though.

3rd went in ok but does seem to feel a little differant to the others... will change the oil next week as it did have a puddle of water by the tower where the drain nozzle had deformed allowing it to miss the cup i'd guess. so will look into that further. and see what comes out when i drain it! hopefuly just oil.

its on 138k i just checked and need to see i its had a clutch in its history. if not that'll be something for the future. and or the gearbox its self, but seen quite a few used items on ebay so not too worried about it.

Thanks!
 
on a drive, 3rd gear was still a bit funny, now and again it would not allow you to go into it, you could move the shifter half way in, then it felt like it was hitting something solid... moving it back to neutral and into 3rd a few times would then allow it in.

its not all the time though

thinking either the shifter tower bush needs doing or rebuilding, or the box is full of water too.... or both.

as it doesnt crunch into 3rd i'm thinking its not a syncro issue, or clutch...

any thoughts?

Thanks!
Andy
 
which part in the shifter tower actually wears then? any got any pictures or a how to? i've seen one thread that said about putting it in the oven, but didnt have a picture of which bit you change.... picture paints a thousand words and all that!
 
If the gear stick seems a bit loose it may be that the selector seal has failed (letting water through) and the bearings have rusted.
 
If the gear stick seems a bit loose it may be that the selector seal has failed (letting water through) and the bearings have rusted.

hmmmm it feels okay but just feel like something is stopping it going into 3rd like the bearing had collasped or something out of adjustment, but it used to be fine, just started this week....
 
hmmmm it feels okay but just feel like something is stopping it going into 3rd like the bearing had collasped or something out of adjustment, but it used to be fine, just started this week....

Hi

It is well worth checking out the area at the bottom of the gear stick assembly..

On some occasions pieces of rubber have collected in that area and caused an issue like this.


Steve B
 
ah are you both now talking about the gearstick end not the gearbox end?

the rubber gater under the leather one was pretty rough, lots of rubber powder about ect.... tricky to remove that though isnt it? hence it had a small cut made already where it had been adjusted in the past, or just worn and torn in a very good location lol
 
Get the vacuum cleaner and small novel at it plus a stiff paint brush about ½" wide to flick the bits of rubber out of the mechanism whilst vacuuming made a world of difference to my TDI along with the cable adjustment the other think that really helped mine was a piece of Mylar about 0.7 MM thick cut so that it took a large amount of plat out between the white plastic piece and the selector arm curved rail on the top of the selector lever. This all made the gear change feel very slop free.
Cheers
 
I had this problem Andy and it was the bearings that had failed, they were replaced at Audi (£200) but failed within a month again....it turned out the that the cup had been moved under the bonnet and the rain water was pouring straight into the bearing housing.
From what I can gather it is not a big job, but the part comes as part of a housing, I got a garage to do it so I had some kind of come back with them. Its not cheap but once done it makes a huge difference.....like you, it was my wife that drove our A2 most of the time so every day it was commented on......once it was repaired all the hassle stopped (both car and wife).....
Waggle the spindle and it should be tight, not slack.....start there because no amount of adjusting will take up the play in the bushes...
 
I had this problem Andy and it was the bearings that had failed, they were replaced at Audi (£200) but failed within a month again....it turned out the that the cup had been moved under the bonnet and the rain water was pouring straight into the bearing housing.
From what I can gather it is not a big job, but the part comes as part of a housing, I got a garage to do it so I had some kind of come back with them. Its not cheap but once done it makes a huge difference.....like you, it was my wife that drove our A2 most of the time so every day it was commented on......once it was repaired all the hassle stopped (both car and wife).....
Waggle the spindle and it should be tight, not slack.....start there because no amount of adjusting will take up the play in the bushes...

Hi buddy.

Thanks for the input, did make me smile :)

i think i need to setup my phone under the bonet to film me pouring water over the vent to test it. but there was water pooling over the shifter tower when i took the bonet off! :(

the spindle on the shifter tower right? will waggle that at the weekend and see. i think changing the parts there is my next port of call, along with oil change too as i'm guessing its got water in it.

is there any kind of exploded diagrame for it, that'll be so much easier for me, but not seen one yet. is it a bush or a roller bearing?

Cheers

Andy
 
http://www.nemiga.com/img/catalogs/etka/st/251311900.png 251311900.jpg


found one, i'm thinking its number 5 and 2 are needed... any thoughts?
 
From what the garage showed me it is no 2 that gives up the ghost. Audi only do the whole tower as one (about £80ish)......this is what I was told anyway.
I had a look at the worn part and it was totally goosed.....I always ask to see parts that have been changed for my own piece of mind.
 
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