Newbie advice required please - S3 notchy gear change

[themanthatcan]

Hi guys,

This is my first new thread here so please treat me gently

I recently purchased a car that has been on my want list for a very long time..a 2001 S3 It has 107k miles on the clock but been really well looked after with a full Audi service history. I'm very happy with it apart from one thing and I'm wondering if you could offer some advice please?

When pushing the gearstick into any gear it's not smooth slide like other (albeit newer and lower-mileage) cars I've driven. It's quite notchy/stiff. By that I mean I need to give it a bit of force to get it into gear. It doesn't crunch at all but I can hear metallic noise, what I can only assume is the linkage moving.

I'm going to make a visit to JKM in Pompey soon to get their opinion but I was wondering if any of you could give me a suggestion as to what might be the cause? The car has a 3 month RAC Gold warranty so I might be able to get it sorted through that, although I bet they'll just claim it's wear and tear and throw the claim out! Once I get this little niggle sorted I'll be able to enjoy my new car 100%

Thanks for looking!
Andy

 

[mattyboy199]

good luck with the warranty claim, the S3's are renown for having notchy gear boxes. If your not getting a crunch think yourself lucky. I suggest you change the oil & see how it feels then, will cost around £60 at the most (not audi).

 

[s3_kev]

i have these sort of problems with mine find it really hard to change from 1st to 2nd when its cold for the first couple of changes then its smother but have to double clutch to stop 2nd gear grinding and still does it at times, i have looked into this and found this stuff going to buy some now so hopefully will help

http://www.simplan.co.uk/index.html

 

[jonS3]

I have similar symptoms to the above, activ8 has been around for years, but never tried it, anyone else tried it?

they are always at motor shows/exhibitions with a test set up to try and pull a lever to stop a wheel with some on and it sure it hard!

 

[themanthatcan]

Well I've given the car a good drive today and it certainly improves greatly when the car is properly warm. I've done over 50 miles and it was driving great. When I took the car out last night before posting this thread it was very cold outside and I was only out for 15 mins so am guessing things didn't really have much of a chance to warm up properly. Todays driving was mainly motorway so all components would have warmed up fully.

I'm sure the gearchange could be smoother but I don't think it warrants looking into any further until something fails completely.

Thanks for your help guys.
Andy