[d.j]

Hi guys, this happened on our 2013 GT TSI, about few weeks back, the car suddenly stopped while engaging reverse into parking, the gear shift moves but it wouldn’t pick a gear, nor move any at all, we tried pushing it with 4-5 people to push it, but this won’t move an inch.

The car is stuck in reversing action/degree and blocking the whole driveway, we called the local dealer workshop to ask if they could do on phone diagnose, at least help us push the car in parking - spoke to technical guys and all, nothing, they were completely blank and simply asked us to tow the vehicle to the workshop. They won’t send a person.

We are waiting for the tow vehicle and a driver from another car walks to us, Kya ho Gaya? let me see, he opens the bonnet like 30-40 seconds, ok, try and the car moved. I was so surprised, asked him, do you know VW cars? no sir, 20 saal se gaddi chalate Hain etc…

The transmission connector base bush/bush pin had worn out, he just connected it back. later we called the service center to check for the part, it’s been 4 weeks they still don’t have it. We are running with a temporary fix, its knotted with a metal wire. Picture of it is attached for your reference.

Though we technically can’t and won't blame the VW service center persons, but I would still say, given the situation, we found them to be below par, in action, knowledge and customer service responsiveness they could have exhibited or delivered in this situation, we are less than 2 kms away from this workshop and are a regular old customer to them. Incident is from Saturday around 4-5 pm.

Posting it here as this may be useful to someone in a situation like we were in and plus if any one of you knows where to source this part, pls! thanks for it in advance!

Rgds/DJ

[GTO]

Thanks for sharing, d.j! Moving your post out to a new thread so as to help other DSG owners stuck in the same situation. A new thread means 100X the views & 100X the visibility in search engines, including Google. Will add to homepage later this week .

@ BHPians, if you should spot any good post in an existing thread that deserves its own new thread, please report the post and we'll move it out for greater visibility.

Thank you!

[Geo_Ipe]

A giant ship’s engine failed. The ship’s owners tried one ‘professional’ after another but none of them could figure out how to fix the broken engine.

Then they brought in a man who had been fixing ships since he was young.
He carried a large bag of tools with him and when he arrived immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom.

Two of the ship’s owners were there watching this man, hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away and the engine was fixed!!!

A week later, the owners received an invoice from the old man for $10,000.

What?! the owners exclaimed. “He hardly did anything..!!!”.

So they wrote to the man; “Please send us an itemised invoice.”

The man sent an invoice that read:

Tapping with a hammer………………….. $2.00

Knowing where to tap…………………….. $9,998.00

Effort is important but experience and knowing where to direct that effort makes all the difference.

Wow!! Real life 'old man' saved your day, that too for free! Great to come across these tales of kindness which remind us that humanity still exists!

[RavSam]

Glad that the passerby helped you out. That to for a VW DSG car. Must really have been curious about working with cars as driving for 20 or whatever years wouldn't necessarily mean one can repair cars.

I remembered this scene from TBBT

https://youtu.be/DOlb9k4tz5g?si=C_LxeaFxv5FY-b8s

No wonder Volkswagen means "People's Car" as people are left on their own to find other people who can help them.

[cormodore]

Thank you d.j, for the information.

Thank you GTO, for creating the new thread, else, I would have definitely missed the information.

Out of curiosity, I opened my Vento TSI engine bay to find out the position and the condition of my transmission connector. When I touched the connector, its kind of shaking, but firm at the moment. Another checkup point for me when I am cleaning my engine bay.

The connector is available in amazon, but outrageously priced. However, its priced around 7 pounds in ebay UK

https://www.amazon.in/Automatic-Tran.../dp/B09PD37RRZ

Part number -- 09G 321 397 A.

It is located under the Air Filter box. A pic from my car for others who would like to know the exact position.

[r24x7]

Thank god the passer by saved your day and helped identify the part. There were real chances that you would have been presented with a quotation for DSG replacement from the service center.

[sjain2054]

What an amazing story!! Such stories are rare. That guy was a God sent. Goes to show that some knowledge about our cars can save us sooo much trouble, time and money. Thanks for sharing this amazing experience and knowledge and through the power of TeamBhp, all readers know what that 20 year experienced driver knew. From 1 person to a million via you and the Tbhp platform!

Super!!

[abaliga]

We need more FNGs to be able to diagonize and fix DSGs, Authorized service stations are not able to retain experienced mechanics, every time I visit a VW or a Skoda service center, most SA's I interact with are new and clueless, this could be the reason why they werent able to help OP fix the issue on call.

If there is expertise in fixing complex cars outside authorized service centers, it will force the dealers to be on their toes and train the mechanics well, also FNGs being much cheaper in comparison can give many of us the confidence to own used German cars that we dream of, I have noticed some FNGs in Tier 1 cities that have gained this expertise, but Tier 2 and 3 cities still lack in this regard.

[greenhorn]

I think the approach that he followed is sound and enshrined in this pic. Though it seems funny, this is a very useful way to diagnose anything, and a lost art to authorised dealers

[aashishnb]

Originally Posted by d.j

The transmission connector base bush/bush pin had worn out, he just connected it back. later we called the service center to check for the part, it’s been 4 weeks they still don’t have it. We are running with a temporary fix, its knotted with a metal wire. Picture of it is attached for your reference. Attachment 2497237

Rgds/DJ

For everyone's benefit, request if you could share the location of this connector within the bonnet. Something like a video where you slowly zoom in or maybe a picture from far & marking the location to look for.
Thanks

[maheshm619]

Originally Posted by d.j

if any one of you knows where to source this part, pls! thanks for it in advance!

Rgds/DJ

This is shift linkage bush. Its sits on top of transmission for most cars. The SOP in case of a failure is mostly to secure the part using a wire / cable tie until spare is available. In our Ford whatsapp group, multiple users had failure of this part.

I've kept two sets of spare in my car or emergency usage.Its very cheap and recommended to replace on 5-6 year mark to avoid any unwanted surprises.

NB: There might be one more bush in proximity, change both.



Pic for reference, not sure if its the exact same part.

[vinaydatla]

This happened to me a few years ago.

Vehicle - Ford Figo 1.4 TDCI
Location - Tirumala hill, Tirupati
Time - 9pm

The manual gear shift stopped working suddenly and was stuck in first gear. Being a hill town, we were able to go around in first gear at low speed. The only mechanic on the hill had left for Tirupati as it was late already.

We parked the car in a safe place and waited till morning. The mechanic was available at noon and he immediately identified the root cause as a failed bush in the transmission assembly. As the part is not easily available, he used a copper wire as a jugaad and tied up the assembly as seen in OP's picture. He assured that we can travel the 700 Kms back to Hyderabad and get it fixed later as there is no urgency.

However, we wanted to ensure that we are not stranded on the way. We tried to look for a Ford A.S.S which can help us out. Due to some confusion in searching for the A.S.S, we lost a lot of time and ended up reaching the A.S.S after 6pm beyond closing time.

The service personnel were still around, they checked the underbody and mentioned that the jugaad is fine but they in turn removed the copper wire which is weaker in nature and replaced it with a stronger GI wire. This was called as a permanent jugaad and not to be worried for few months at least.

After reaching Hyderabad, I visited a nearby FNG for suggestions. The mechanic at the FNG looked at it and said you need not worry at all. However, when I insisted him to procure the part to fix the issue - he walked out of the shed and went into their yard which had a few brand new total loss vehicles of ZoomCar (they were authorized service partners of Zoom car) and pulled out the bush from a brand new Ecosport which was totaled in the first month out of the showroom.

He immediately fixed it to my car free of charge and sent me away.

[corvus corax]

location of this connector within the bonnet

In the Polo its adjacent to the ABS module. Look between the charge pipe and air box.
I checked mine now, the connector seems plastic and the attachment mechanism is 'press button' like. It was sitting slightly crooked, like it was going to pop off from the attachment. I adjusted it back to the straight position. Since the arm is made of plastic, if any oil based lube or WD 40 is added then there is a chance that it would slip out? Perhaps a silicon based lube can be used?

[lemedico]

A panoramic image of the location is essential for understanding.

[Jeroen]

Thanks for sharing!

Whenever you face a problem with the shifter, be it on manual or some kind of auto transmission, and you can just move the shifter back and forth without anything happening it is very likely to be a simple mechanical problem like this.

Most transmission have some sort of linkeage between the shifter/gear stick and the transmission box. (My Alfa Spider is one of the few cars I know where the gear stick goes straight into the gearbox).

So over time these various mechanical bits and joints develop some play and or eventually break.

On most cars easily fixable if you know what to look for.

Jeroen