reasons for a 2nd gear lock out?

[b00st]

it just recently started happening.
what i have noticed....

its only on deceleration.
after i've been driving in stop and go traffic for an hour or so.
after about an hour of stop and go traffic....i'm right in front of my house and as i'm trying to turn the corner
and put it in 2nd gear to go around the corner...it won't let me in the gear. its ONLY 2nd gear that it does it.
i don't grind gears, slam shift, miss gears. i have no idea why all of the sudden i can't get into second gear.

it will not do this if the car hasn't been driven. It goes in 2nd gear nice and clean when the car hasn't been sitting
in traffic for an hour. but even in stop and go traffic...and an hours time in...it will not do it if i'm accelerating.
which i find odd. but if i'm coming to a stop...after my hour of traffic it will not let me in and i'm going to fast for 1st
and too slow for 3rd. any ideas as to what would cause this? i was thinking that as the weight transfer forward it wasn't
aligning the synchros? or fluids? but why wouldn't he reverse apply if i am accelerating it from 1st gear...2nd is no issue.
but if i'm stopping it is. thoughts?

[Justincredible]

Sounds like your second gear synchro is going bad. You could try putting in new fluids but Im not sure that will help all that much.

[b00st]

and i thought about that. but why not do it on acceleration?
i have no issues of going from 1st to 2nd....but going from a higher gear so i'm cruising in 4th gear
than making a right turn...i downshift to 2nd...but i can't IF the car has been running a while.
I can if i've only been driving not in traffic. ex...drove to work this morning....no issues. whethers
its downshifting or upshift.

on the way home when i have no choice but to sit in some god aweful traffic....it will do this right before i get to my house.
why would a synchro go bad if i don't miss gears/grind gears/etc? i would think if the synchro is going bad that it would
do that in regardless of what i'm doing.

[b00st]

talked to CPT here in chicago...said not likely a synchro. since it only happens on the decel.
now the frustration starts.

[dparm]

Talk to GRD.

[b00st]

never been a fan.

[dparm]

I'm the opposite...was not pleased with CPT but am always satisfied with GRD.

[b00st]

justin...u wanna do a serpentine belt?

[b00st]

I'm the opposite...was not pleased with CPT but am always satisfied with GRD.

yeah opposite for me. whatta ya gonna. i go with who i feel comfortable with as does everyone.

it was back in the day...but back then i felt if i didn't drive an STi or 350z...they didn't care. and they definitely never called back.
to bad you never get a second chance to make a first impression.

[Lefthook]

this is the same thing I had happening with mine. Never missed a shift, never ground gears. Then it got progressively worse.. crunch if you didn't shift crisply, would have to hold it in gear or it would pop out if it wasn't under load.. and now won't go in at all, under any circumstances.

I have a feeling it is the synchro and shift collar, and i'm looking at a rebuild. Just did all the mounts (snub, diff, motor, trans) and tried adjusting the shifter just to be sure that wasn't the issue, no dice.

Sigh.

Time to call JHM again...

[b00st]

this is the same thing I had happening with mine. Never missed a shift, never ground gears. Then it got progressively worse.. crunch if you didn't shift crisply, would have to hold it in gear or it would pop out if it wasn't under load.. and now won't go in at all, under any circumstances.

I have a feeling it is the synchro and shift collar, and i'm looking at a rebuild. Just did all the mounts (snub, diff, motor, trans) and tried adjusting the shifter just to be sure that wasn't the issue, no dice.

Sigh.

Time to call JHM again...

could you get into 2nd when you accel?
in "cold drives" i have no issues.
in traffic drives i have issues only when coming to a stop or trying to take a turn in 2nd.
but after i have an issue....so i came to a stop and then checked to see if i could get into 2nd and i couldn't.
i would come to a complete stop (streetlight) then start in 1st and go the gears like nothing happened.

did you get a price on a rebuild or reman trans?

[NHSKIER]

I have the exact same problem with my S4 when shifting down into second gear. I talked to my local Audi dealer and they were clueless about it. After a little experimentation I learned that the problem is made worse by pulling the shift lever all the way to the left side (towards the driver) of the shift pattern which is the natural flow when you shift into second. When you relieve the pressure and let the shift lever float to the right just a little it will slide into gear like it was meant to.

I've had this proble since the car was new, I would try to shift into second gear for a quick getaway from the toll booths only to be completely frustrated and wondering what was wrong with my car. It seems that there is an internal shift gate that changes position as the car warms up.

[b00st]

I have the exact same problem with my S4 when shifting down into second gear. I talked to my local Audi dealer and they were clueless about it. After a little experimentation I learned that the problem is made worse by pulling the shift lever all the way to the left side (towards the driver) of the shift pattern which is the natural flow when you shift into second. When you relieve the pressure and let the shift lever float to the right just a little it will slide into gear like it was meant to.

I've had this proble since the car was new, I would try to shift into second gear for a quick getaway from the toll booths only to be completely frustrated and wondering what was wrong with my car. It seems that there is an internal shift gate that changes position as the car warms up.

this was something i had considered...maybe i was man handling my car a little much. since i'm all swoll
i could be an issue which i will check on the way home. i can definitely see this as issue as a first time owner.
but after 3 years of driving it....i would think i would know how to drive my car. on the way home today after
the heavy traffic i will try not to jam it all the way left and see if i can get into 2nd. if i can...i think this is the issue.
odd that its happening now...since i haven't changed my driving habits.

also when speeding away from a toll.....i never have this issue. just when slowing down. speeding up has always been
fun with no issue.

[NHSKIER]

It is odd because it does not occur all the time on my car... which always makes it a surprise when it does happen, but like you say maybe it's me being a little more aggressive at times.

Sorry to mislead but I should clarify that I meant that the problem was shifting down to second entering the toll booth (ezpass lane), preparing to exit the toll booth in second.

[Lefthook]

my car started out as a downshifting/popping out when not under load and got progressively worse.

Something is clearly wrong with the 2nd gear mechanism in the tranny. I'm going to see if I can't squeeze a little more life/use out of it for a bit by adjusting the shift selector rod, because I've dropped 4 grand on it in the last 3 months for various things and the wife is threatening to set it on fire now, lol. To be fair that includes wheels/tires/alignment which is just part of owning a vehicle.. however, I know that but Mrs LH is not quite as analytical about where the dollars go, haha.

[Josh Forbing]

It's from someone missing 2nd gear repeatedly resulting in the pointed part of the engagement teeth on the shift slider (collar) to be ground flat. I've rebuilt countless DSM trans's & I've seen it many times.

A highschool kid owned my S4 before me & when I got it, it would do this as well as popping out of gear sometimes. Always on decel & more often turning. A teardown & inspection showed he'd done it so many times that it looked like someone milled the teeth off of the slider down a good 6-7mm. Hence the popping out of gear; not enough slider to syncro contact to gep it engaged. The "locking out of 2nd gear is caused when the syncro teeth get hung up on the part of the slider teeth that have been flattened. I haven't really come up with a reason it is more common on turns. Mine would do it even when going straight, but less so. Possibly a little bit of tapered bearing wear causing gear cluster shaft misalignment issues. But that's only a guess.

[Lefthook]

It's from someone missing 2nd gear repeatedly resulting in the pointed part of the engagement teeth on the shift slider (collar) to be ground flat. I've rebuilt countless DSM trans's & I've seen it many times.

A highschool kid owned my S4 before me & when I got it, it would do this as well as popping out of gear sometimes. Always on decel & more often turning. A teardown & inspection showed he'd done it so many times that it looked like someone milled the teeth off of the slider down a good 6-7mm. Hence the popping out of gear; not enough slider to syncro contact to gep it engaged. The "locking out of 2nd gear is caused when the syncro teeth get hung up on the part of the slider teeth that have been flattened. I haven't really come up with a reason it is more common on turns. Mine would do it even when going straight, but less so. Possibly a little bit of tapered bearing wear causing gear cluster shaft misalignment issues. But that's only a guess.

did you tear down your 6 speed yourself? I've rebuilt a couple of toploader 4 speeds and a t-56, coming from Fords. Not rocket science by any stretch, but I haven't even looked at a manual for this Getrag. I'm reading that it's 250 bucks worth of specialty tools from Audi to rebuild this thing so I'm pondering whether I should remove it, ship it off for rebuild and then put a new clutch in it and reinstall it myself.

I've got a shop/lift and just about every tool aside from the Audi-specific stuff but reading the horror stories about these things being in the frickin dealer for 3 weeks for a transmission rebuild has me feeling a little less confident than usual.

[Josh Forbing]

No, I didn't tear it down myself. It was noted when I bought it & the dealer repaired it as part of the purchase. I do personally know the techs that repaired it & was there for most of the procedure & don't remember them using any Audi specific special tools. I was rebuilding DSM manual tran's, on the side, for many years & bought all the special tools when I started, because I thought I needed them. They sure look nice in my toolbox. I never use them.

[jimichunga]

This just started happening to me this weekend in Tahoe. I just got the car in September and am seriously cringing at the fact that I may already be looking at a trans rebuild.

Its intermittent for me, but if I wiggle the shifter left to right I can usually get it into gear.

[Guitarmageddon]

What is your downshift technique?