Superb 2009, diesel automatic, 90K: every so often, the car will not catch reverse. The R flashes in the top-right of the maxidot and rev all you like, it's not going anywhere. Sometimes it will catch after a second or two but usually, I'll put it into neutral, wait a moment seconds, go back to reverse and all is well again. Recently there have been a couple of occasions where this extends to drive as well and the car won't go into gear forward or back. It's solved by turning off the engine and restarting and then no problem. But these incidents are increasing in frequency and I'm concerned that I will be stuck in the middle of nowhere needing a fix that the RAC won't be able to do roadside.

 

So: this is the clutch, yes? I think so. Garage thinks so. But is it likely just clutch plate, or the master cylinder, the slave - or everything together?

When was gearbox oil and filter last changed? You could try a gearbox 'reset' (forget what it's called) if you have access to VCDS.

If the selected gaear indicator is flashing as you've mentioned above then there is a chance the car will be registering a fault code.

 

Try and find someone with VCDS, or spend the £20 on Carista and read the fault codes. Spending time and money on proper diagnosis is far better than guessing.

 

But if I was to guess, then yes, my thoughts would also be wear on the clutch packs. A little premature at 90,000 miles though, but it does depend on what the car has been doing for the bulk of that mileage.

Thanks. I'll give Carista a try tonight and check fault codes. £10 for a week's access isn't going to kill me if I know more about the issue.

So I ran Carista and there were a bunch of fault codes from times gone by and then - stupidly - I cleared them by mistake before taking a closer look... I'll keep an eye on the driving over the weekend and run it again when something happens.