Sometime difficult to engage 1st or reverse from standstill

[Bullie Boy]

Very occasionally it is difficult to engage 1st or reverse from a standstill. I usually go back to neutral, lift the clutch and try again and that usually works. It can happen when the engine is cold or hot. The clutch has been bled!

It's a 2017 Kombi with manual gearbox.

Any ideas?

 

[hunta]

How often is very occasional? If really not often then this sounds fairly normal to me across a range of manual cars / vans in my experience.

 

[Bullie Boy]

How often is very occasional? If really not often then this sounds fairly normal to me across a range of manual cars / vans in my experience.

Not very often! When it happens both first and reverse won't engage.

 

[Catmalvin]

Not very often! When it happens both first and reverse won't engage.

I'm having the exact same issue with my van, with not being able to select 1st or reverse.
Normally end up having to engage 2nd and then when rolling in to 1st or reverse.

Did you manage to find a fix to this yet ?
I've been thinking potential box issue rather than clutch as will go in to every other gear.

 

[Chippie1]

I sometimes get this I think I’ve narrowed it down to when it’s idling higher when doing a regen
Once it’s done it’s thing all seems ok

 

[Bullie Boy]

I'm having the exact same issue with my van, with not being able to select 1st or reverse.
Normally end up having to engage 2nd and then when rolling in to 1st or reverse.

Did you manage to find a fix to this yet ?
I've been thinking potential box issue rather than clutch as will go in to every other gear.

Not managed to find a fix yet. Did a long journey over the weekend and it did it once! The garage I use knows of the problem but doesn't know the cause. I'm thinking of having the gearbox oil changed to see if that helps.

 

[Catmalvin]

Not managed to find a fix yet. Did a long journey over the weekend and it did it once! The garage I use knows of the problem but doesn't know the cause. I'm thinking of having the gearbox oil changed to see if that helps.

Hi @BulliBoy did changing the gearbox oil help. I'm still having the same issues even more clunky changing in to 2nd and 3rd these days. Also some juddering under pulling off which is signs of dmf going bad.

Debating whether to refurb the box at the same time as replacing dmf and clutch or hope the box is ok.

 

[Bullie Boy]

Hi @BulliBoy did changing the gearbox oil help. I'm still having the same issues even more clunky changing in to 2nd and 3rd these days. Also some juddering under pulling off which is signs of dmf going bad.

Debating whether to refurb the box at the same time as replacing dmf and clutch or hope the box is ok.

Hello,

I haven't had the gearbox oil changed yet, had a bill for £1,000 for replacing the egr valve on our Yeti. We've owned the van from new, 2017, and it has covered just under 35,000 miles. It seems to be happening less often recently!

 

[The Bear78]

Wading in to this one with my 2016 Kombi 140 manual. I bought the van at ~99k and . after I bought the van I did notice that 1st gear could be difficult to engage from a standstill. 2nd and 3rd could crunch a bit if rushed and I could also get the odd judder pulling away.

I changed the gearbox oil. Unsurprisingly it looked OK (no carbon to discolour it) but the fresh oil had zero impact on the gear changes.

Now on 145k it's the same and we've recently started towing a 1500 -2000 kg horse box quite often. This seems to make the clutch worse for a period afterwards but it always goes back to "normal".

What I've found is using a few more revs pulling away will prevent the judder. I quite often pull away in second too. Also, nothing ground breaking here but, if I touch the throttle just enough to take up the backlash when changing into 2nd and 3rd it slips in nicely. It's almost like taking up the slack in the cable that isn't there... Either way, the tiniest of throttle input seems to be just right to allow the gears to engage smoothly.

I realise that this is masking the problem to some degree but it's lasted this long on it's original clutch and flywheel. It's really not that bad and I've no reason to believe that either is on its way out but appreciate that it's days are numbered!!