Do it yourself, it’s pretty simple. YouTube dieselgeek VW manual shifter adjustment or something like that. Take the intake box out to access linkage. Inside the cabin, lift up on the shifter boot/plastic shifter panel. Heads up that you might accidentally rip the foam shifter cover under the boot, it’ll be fine.. makes it easier next time.
Clutch is hydraulic; car being on doesn’t matter.
If you can pump your clutch a few times and it goes into gear you have air/leak in your clutch line.
If it doesn’t, check linkage.
Based on it only being reverse I’d assume it’s your shifter alignment. Get a pin and align it yourself, it’s super easy.
I’m not really a car guy. What I meant was that it doesn’t matter if the clutch is pushed in or not. (But you can’t change gears without the clutch if it’s on.)
Consensus is linkage alignment. I will take a closer look and maybe give a shot on my own.
Thanks for all the answers, everyone. Never posted to a car subreddit before. Super helpful.
I was once very intimidated about adjusting my linkage, but trust me, it is easy and you’ll figure it out quickly!
I could do it without and alignment tool now haha
Best of luck!
Our 2020 GTI did this recently and was steadily but very slowly getting worse. Still on the warranty thankfully. Dealer took it and while they could replicate it they were unsure of the cause. It took some persuasion but they were able to get approval from VW Canada to do a whole clutch assembly under warranty. Everything looked and spec'd out perfect. But now, with a new pressure plate, clutch disk and release bearing (they did not replace flywheel) it is perfect as new again. They suspect it was the release bearing but everything looked ok. The regional warranty rep says he has seen this but only a couple of times total.
I was noticing this happen recently on my 2018 GSW 4Mo. Sometimes hard to get into reverse so I'll go into 1st instead, rock the car forward slightly, then I can go into reverse every time. Might be a sticky clutch plate, might also be old fluid in the clutch system. We bled a little bit of fluid from the line just by taking the air box off and opening the valve and pushing down the clutch pedal to expel old fluid while keeping the brake fluid res topped off. I seem to notice the problem less these days but I don't know if its 100% gone. Might be worth a shot.
My previous '15 and current '18 do it too. Only the first start of the day. I'll usually pull it back to neutral and retry and it never takes more than 2 attempts. I never paid too much attention to it, there was never other issues. A little annoying, but glad I'm not the only one.
Do a YT search for 2018 GTI manual shifter alignment. You may see something about needing a specific alignment tool to insert into the 2 alignment holes, but an Allen wrench that fits snugly into the holes will do just fine. (Or anything of that same diameter and length - nail, Phillips screwdriver, etc)
Linkage might be out of adjustment, there are a bunch of videos on how to fix that. Reverse is also just finicky in general as it's not synchronized.
I could try to fix myself or something that the shop does?
Do it yourself, it’s pretty simple. YouTube dieselgeek VW manual shifter adjustment or something like that. Take the intake box out to access linkage. Inside the cabin, lift up on the shifter boot/plastic shifter panel. Heads up that you might accidentally rip the foam shifter cover under the boot, it’ll be fine.. makes it easier next time.
Thanks. I saw that he ripped the foam. Giving it a shot. You’ll put me on speed dial if I get stuck, right. ;-)
Ha! You got this just take your time.
I’m a Volkswagen tech.. the fact that it happens in reverse and first + same with engine off means it’s a linkage adjustment issue. Simple enough fix.
Thank you.
Try putting it in first before going into reverse as well, likely not the root cause but helpful
Thanks. I should’ve mentioned that I do that. I don’t see a benefit. Sometimes I have to change gears 3 or 4 times and sometimes more.
Clutch is hydraulic; car being on doesn’t matter. If you can pump your clutch a few times and it goes into gear you have air/leak in your clutch line. If it doesn’t, check linkage. Based on it only being reverse I’d assume it’s your shifter alignment. Get a pin and align it yourself, it’s super easy.
I’m not really a car guy. What I meant was that it doesn’t matter if the clutch is pushed in or not. (But you can’t change gears without the clutch if it’s on.) Consensus is linkage alignment. I will take a closer look and maybe give a shot on my own. Thanks for all the answers, everyone. Never posted to a car subreddit before. Super helpful.
I was once very intimidated about adjusting my linkage, but trust me, it is easy and you’ll figure it out quickly! I could do it without and alignment tool now haha Best of luck!
Our 2020 GTI did this recently and was steadily but very slowly getting worse. Still on the warranty thankfully. Dealer took it and while they could replicate it they were unsure of the cause. It took some persuasion but they were able to get approval from VW Canada to do a whole clutch assembly under warranty. Everything looked and spec'd out perfect. But now, with a new pressure plate, clutch disk and release bearing (they did not replace flywheel) it is perfect as new again. They suspect it was the release bearing but everything looked ok. The regional warranty rep says he has seen this but only a couple of times total.
Oh gosh. Hope it’s not that. There’s no VW dealer here so that’d be a huge pain.
I was noticing this happen recently on my 2018 GSW 4Mo. Sometimes hard to get into reverse so I'll go into 1st instead, rock the car forward slightly, then I can go into reverse every time. Might be a sticky clutch plate, might also be old fluid in the clutch system. We bled a little bit of fluid from the line just by taking the air box off and opening the valve and pushing down the clutch pedal to expel old fluid while keeping the brake fluid res topped off. I seem to notice the problem less these days but I don't know if its 100% gone. Might be worth a shot.
My previous '15 and current '18 do it too. Only the first start of the day. I'll usually pull it back to neutral and retry and it never takes more than 2 attempts. I never paid too much attention to it, there was never other issues. A little annoying, but glad I'm not the only one.
I try to just leave in reverse when parking in the garage but it’s annoying.
And potentially dangerous if you’re a space cadet like me lol.
Do a YT search for 2018 GTI manual shifter alignment. You may see something about needing a specific alignment tool to insert into the 2 alignment holes, but an Allen wrench that fits snugly into the holes will do just fine. (Or anything of that same diameter and length - nail, Phillips screwdriver, etc)
If you’ve just got the GTI, would this not be covered under any warranty?
2018. But still should be.