Been having a problem for a while now, but getting more pronounced.

 

 

Basically when you change up or down to 3rd,4th,or 5th - sometimes (about 1 change in 20), the gearstick will not go into gear.

It feels like it's blocked, and you have to put it into another gear, and back to make it work.

 

 

 

The clutch seems ok, 1st, reverse and second all select fine.

No strange noises from the box, and tried quick changing, changing at high revs (which would beat the synchro on a worn box) - all ok.

Car has done 182k

 

Shift alignment out, broken shift fingers, or worn dogbone all spring to mind.

I believe bowders1 has a guide done in tech guides on adjusting the gear linkages which may sort out your problem, 

easier than it being dogbone / shift fingers...

Yeah. but if you're down there it's a good opportunity to check the other two, particularly since the linkage won't stay adjusted if the fingers are broken.

Thanks for the advice, main problem turned out to be the linkage dry and rusty in the engine bay. I was looking at the cable reset, and you can just see the mechanism without removing pipes.

I squirted oil onto the mechanism, did a 150mile drive the next day, loads better but not perfect.

Squirted loads of WD40 and oil, did a 100 mile drive and it's better again.

Still a bit notchy, but I guess if the mechanism's been dry it could have stretched the cables.

Bit peed off really, as it's just had its annual service, I would have thought they would grease this as part of the service. (Vw specialist)

After much messing about, it turned out to not like the oil in the gearbox, I changed it with something I got from Ebay, but this made no difference.

Tried the forums and found this stuff does the job. Gear changes are now just as they used to be.

New Febi Bilstein Car Gearbox Oil Genuine OE Quality Service Part No 21829

Cheers for that; it was another candidate, but unless the OP actually mentions a gearbox oil change it's not one most of us would normally consider. If they do, then it's well known that certain (highly reputable) makes of gear oil don't work well with VAG boxes.