Been on holiday to Devon this week so have been doing more driving than I usually would, covered over 500 miles in the last 5 days and been swearing at the gearbox on occasion. For some reason, only when changing from 2nd to 3rd, sometimes it will refuse to go into 3rd gear like there is a physical block stopping the gear stick go into that position. I have tried double clutching, but still can't get it into 3rd so have to put it into 4th and struggle to gain momentum.

I'm not really a big fan of the gearbox on this car as a whole. 1st is pointless after a car's length of movement, 2nd can struggle pulling away if about to roll to a stop, 3rd is ok once it lets me use it, 4th is probably most used apart from when cruising, 5th is useless for overtaking and feels like I would benefit from a 6th gear when cruising at more than 70mph.

The car is a great all rounder, and does the job, but absolutely ****e at overtaking. It's so annoying to be stuck behind some idiot doing 50 who then decides to speed up to the limit when I try to overtake. Had to tuck back in behind more than a few times, so frustrating.

Is there much I can do to improve the performance? I don't see any point spending a **** load of cash just for a small increase, but if I can make a noticable improvement without spending too much that would be good.

Anyone had a problem changing up to 3rd or am I just a crap driver?

If it's around corners, may be a loose or worn dogbone mount. Really easy to change by yourself. Or loose console bolts/ trans bolts. All accessible from under the car quite easily.

If not, you could try adjusting the gearshift linkage. There's a how to somewhere on here, or google for dieselgeek shifter - they lay out the procedure on their shifter kit install.....

If all else fails, a proper professional exam might show up a worn syncro perhaps?

HTH

Bas

I have absolutely the same problem, it comes about once a few days in average.

I've had this very same experience a number of times with my Octy - thought it was just that I wasn't engaging the clutch sufficiently. It's a tad concerning, because I had a simmilar experience with my Peugeot 306 and managed to go through two gear linkages in this way! The third time it happened I waved goodbye to the Pug and bought the Octy - a great move, but I'd feel very sad if this happened to the new one.