Auris TS sometimes difficult to engage 1. gear and reverse gear

[Daniel815]

Hi all,

I have an auris TS petrol 1.6 with manual transmission. The car has 90000 km on the clock. Sometimes it is difficult to engage 1st gear and reverse gear. Most of the time the gear shift is smooth. Could it be sign of a worn clutch? Or it could be something else? 

Kindly advice

[furtula]

Does this only happen when car is cold?

If it warms up, does the problem disappear?

Did you try just releasing the clutch, engaging again and selecting a gear?

When you try to select reverse, is there a crunch, or is it just hard to get in?

Did the problem started with cold weather, or was it there for longer time period, slowly getting worse?

[Byzii]

Also it's important whether you're moving of stationary when you're having problems. Getting into 1st can be tricky, especially if the car isn't warmed up thoroughly, when slowly moving forward. In cold weather I have to go into 2nd and crawl to speed with tears in my eyes from all the shaking of the car. Also getting into reverse can sometimes be a [censored] because a lot of the reverse gears are straight-cut (don't remember the actual word for it) and not like the other gears. It's also the reason reverse gears make funny noise.

[Steve Whits]

51 minutes ago, Byzii said:

 a lot of the reverse gears are straight-cut (don't remember the actual word for it) and not like the other gears.

Synchro? :)

[furtula]

The gears for reverse are straight cut, because it's cheaper  and more durable for the transmission. 

Forward gears are helical cut, mainly because this makes them silent. If you ever saw a rally and remember that loud whine in a car, those are the transmission gears, same whine you get it going reverse fast enough.

Synchro can be part of a reverse gears, but almost always reverse gears is without syncro, as you have to be stationary to select it anyway.

[Daniel815]

Thanks for your answers. The issue can occur both when the car is cold and when it's warm. I normally change the gear from reverse to 1.gear or from 1. gear to reverse when the car is stationary. I have had the issue since I  bought the car for one and half years ago, but as far as I remember it was only with the reverse gear. Now I started also experiencing the issue with the 1.gear. although the weather has been cold in the last couple of weeks. No crunch sound, just very hard to get in . When I experience the issue, I try couple of times until I can get it in gear. I have though not tried to release the clutch and engage it again. I will try that next time, when I get the issue. 

Could the change of transmission oil help? I don't think that it has ever been changed and the car is now 5 years old. 

[furtula]

If there is no crunch when engaging the reverse gear, then i doubt the clutch is dragging. If there is no problem for any other gear, except 1st/R, then the 1st gear synchro might be the issue.

Also, next time this happens, hold the clutch in, try to get into 1st gear, if it does not work, do not let go of the clutch, but try 2nd gear, and if it goes in easy, pop it into 1st. Do let us know if this works.

Change of oil might help, but might also make it worse, i had similar issues on another car, change the oil 2x, but in the end the factory oil with 150k km was performing better.

[Daniel815]

Actually last time I had the issue with 1 st. gear couple of days ago, it was in a traffic light. I tried to get into the 1st. gear couple of times but without success, then I easily put it in 2st. and drove. I will try next time to pop it into the 2st. and then into the 1.st. without releasing the clutch. I will let you know.