Luvvin it - BUT! (changing down problem)

[ianjemmett]

Hi everyone - from the Garden of England

Just bought our first Octavia a week ago - veeery impressed. Not an expensive buy - 1.9 non-turbo diesel £1495 on a V plate with 100k on the clock & the bodywork hasn't been particularly looked after.

One problem - when changing down it's reluctant, to say the least, to go into 2nd from 3rd. Is this a known fault that develops? If so, is it likely to be in the gearbox or is there some linkage between the gearchange lever & the box that could be the source of the problem?

Or something else?

Chaning up's smooth & the clutch doesn't come in early so I don't think that's dragging.

My thoughts are: If it's in the box it's likely to cost more to fix than we paid for the car so add something like Slick 50 to the oil, see if that improves it & run it until it packs up altogether. Then get it sorted.

If it's a linkage problem, that's probably cheaper.

Thanks in advance.

Ian

[SONICtheONE]

Hi, When I had my Octy had a similar problem to this, sometimes didn't like changing gear quickly, I renewed the bush on the dog-leg mount, the one that goes between the bottom of the gearbox and the body/chassis, this made a world of difference, I put a uprated one on but the old one was shot allowing the engine/gearbox to move a bit causing the linkage to move out of line until the torque comes off the engine.
Hope this helps,
Alan.

[ianjemmett]

Thanks Alan

I've noticed in some other threads (VW Golf gear changind problems etc) that the subject of engine mountings comes up quite a lot in this connection. We'll get ours checked out. After 113k miles it wouldn't be a surprise to discover they're past their best.

Ian

[mukesh maheshwa]

known concern on the Octavia-check quality and level of oil in gear box, replace with mineral oil not synthetic. should make a diff, also lubricate the shifter cables and the shift lever which goes into the gear box using an anti sust spray- moiture gets retained in the well around the shifter shaft.

[ianjemmett]

Thanks Mukesh.

We did return it, together with a print out of emails to date, to the garage that supplied it. They seem to have sorted out the changing down into 2nd problem - but now it's often difficult to get into first when stationary, so I don't think they've really addressed the issue(s).

The car's actually my wife's &, living in the sticks, she depends on it every day but hopefully we can get it in somewhere in the Summer.

Ian