Hi, our 2007 audi a3 1.9tdi with 157,000 miles on a manual gearbox is hard to get into gear.



Reverse gear crunches when trying to get into gear. It's hard to get into first, and second, and third. Fourth and fifth are slightly easier to get into.
Even with the engine off ,it can be hard to select a gear. This makes me think that it's not a clutch / pressure plate problem .
Would an gear oil change possibly sort this problem .
cheers

Hello Madpanfan,

To me, the symptoms you describe would be typical of what would arise if you had clutch issues. It would be unlikely that difficult gear selection across all gears would be mainly due to gearbox problems. 

Kind regards,

Gareth. 

Mad.

Your problem is simple: the clutch is clapped out. If you don't change it soon, your gearbox will be too.

Was this information any help to you Madpanfan - particularly Cliff’s point about the longer term affects on your gearbox? 

Kind regards,

Gareth, 

Thank you both for the replies. 

The clutch biting point is near the floor, but I haven't noticed an actual change in the biting point. 

The gear changes up until recently were very smooth but the clutch has been grabbing or juddering for a few months now. ... 

Hello Madpanfan, 

Thanks for the additional information. 

Sounds like the clutch biting point has been near the floor for some time - which is not good news. Putting that, and the juddering and grabbing issues suggests -no confirms - it is in need of urgent attention, before it decides to disintegrate. 

The good news is I would think you don’t have gearbox troubles, the bad news is you really should be getting the clutch changed as soon as possible, after yesterday! 

Audi clutch parts are daftly priced, so if it were mine, I would be shopping around for a LUK 3 part clutch kit (the only - in caps - aftermarket kit I would buy). I would not be tempted to buy any other aftermarket make clutch kit, even if a certain on line supplier has what would appear to be an attractive discount code at the time. EBay, should come up with competitive prices for LUK from a variety of sellers. 

Kind regards,

Gareth.