Car is really hard to shift into first

[Talon1996]

I have a 1996 Eagle Talon Tsi awd with a fully rebuilt trans, new clutch, and flywheel. I put 150 miles on it and it started to get very hard to move the shifter into first gear and other gears felt a little stiff to get in to also. Slave cylinder is filled and is working fine, tried adjusting the clutch pedal, and cannot figure out what it is. Any ideas?

 

[avefenix]

my first guess would have been clutch master or slave cylinder or air in those lines, but seeing how you just had this tranny remanned....i would figure if it ws stiff it would have been in the beginning...surprisingly i bought a tranny for a spyder in 2008 and it was stiff but it was stiff where the linkages were and a lil lube fixed that, perhaps someone else may have had this problem??????

 

[dalesocks]

Make sure there are no leaks and that the bushing on the tranny is not hitting anything.

 

[Rick_4g63]

If you didnt bleed the clutch master cylinder properly you can have air pockets. The air pockets don't let the clutch release or grab the tranny so it causes stiffness to change gears, or may not go in at all. I replaced my CMS and didnt bleed it right the first time so I had to force first gear and reverse and sometimes it would grind badly. Later on it was harder to get into any gear so I flushed the lines and rebled it. Once i made sure there were no air pockets I was able to go into all the gears with no problem. hope that helps

 

[And_44]

Did you try pressing the clutch in with it in gear and brakes off and rev the engine to see if clutch is dragging? Rev the engine to 6-7 k on a level surface and see if car start to roll forward in first gear or in reverse.

If it does start to move your clutch is dragging and something in either the hydraulics or actual cylinders isn't right, worst case is the flywheel isn't stepped correctly, if it doesn't move its your shift linkage most likely not adjusted right. If still there after adjusting, probally to close of tolerences in the tranny from rebuild.

 

[Remz540]

I have a 95 tsi and i used syn fluid in my man tranz. it did the same thing. I swiched to GL5 and it got better. maybe it's the grar oil

 

[cianfar]

try shifting from the shift rail outside and see if it go into gear, if not then the tranny might not be properly rebuild or improper fluids ( who did the rebuild? and what type of fluids is in the box?)

As for the guy above me you should not use GL5 as it kill the syhcro.
The recommendation is GL4 for the tranny and GL 5 for transfercase and rearend.

 

[Talon1996]

Thanks for all of the great suggestions guys, it was a master cylinder.