After a short motorway pootle I came to park in the drive as normal. Put the car in reverse all OK stuck it in the drive then to my horror the gearbox would not come out of gear. It was properly jammed in. Not wanting to damage any linkeges I depressed the clutch several times to no effect.

To be honest I got mad with it and ragged it out. All seems OK now but is this a common fault or a pre-cursor to something more serious?

I have experienced a similar problem after i have left the car in reverse overnight ( my drive is on an incline ) it may be because the handbrake has eased and the gearbox has taken the load from the wheels . but no other issues with g/box

maybe the clutch is on its way out, what sort of milage have you done and is it standard?

My 95k mile vRS does this too, I have changed the gearbox oil to Silkolene Syntran 5 which has helped, but not cured the problem. I would be interested to hear if anyone has found the cause of this, there seems to be quite a few cases on the net of 02J gearboxes doing this.

maybe the clutch is on its way out, what sort of milage have you done and is it standard?

Yep standard clutch and has now done 104k. By the looks of things it might be a recurring fault. Did it again this morning.

i havent experienced this problem, mine intermittently refuses to go fully into reverse and when warmed wont go into 1st from neutral.

The dealer (who has been excellent with everything else) cant find anything wrong with it as the problem never occurs when they have the car.

i've read quite a few gearbox related threads though, the boxes on theses cars dont seem to be the best.

the technician came out in the car with me when i was last there, he reckoned the boxes are bullet proof and notchy anyway... somehow i dont think they are...

my gearbox blew up at about 95k

I have exactly the same problem and again dealer said all like that and not to worry.

Saying that my aunt has a TDI 90 in a golf and it really is like that and been going for miles, so who knows.

hmm dont want to alarm you but mine blew at 35K, started off notchy and would crunch on quick first to second changes ( vag box trait i think)

big issues started with an intermittent fault on accleration in first when pulling away briskly car she would lock in first, had top pull over more than once to free the lever, dealer disasembled and blamed pressure plate and after an exchange of views with Skoda Warranty the agreed to pay for it in full,

then on reassembly dealer noted a noise from diff and sid it would have to be replaced (again at skodas cost) he returned the car to me while the part was being shipped (from Germany) but in the mean time the whole shebang decided to pack up and left me stranded in the middle of a junction fully locked up not even able to push it free!

eventually I man handled it to safety but boy did it sound bad!!!

anyhoo new box in and so far so good, hopefully a one off!

Erm..... problem seems to be getting worse. Just locked itself in reverse again outside my Mums, she lives 25 miles away! It is getting a bit crunchy putting it into 1st at junctions or rolling up to junctions. A couple of times I have had to let the clutch up then down again to get it into first to set off (rather than forcing it).

When it has jammed in reverse, once released, the action on the gear **** seems to become very light with no notchiness in any gear. What is this pressure plate that a couple of people have mentioned? Is it easy to change the oil in the gearbox?

My tdi became difficult to engage reverse 1st & 2nd when cold occasionally, then going to work one day it locked in third (i think), Being in a hurry i used brute force. Then i could only select 2nd & 3rd. A new gearbox was required as i had damaged syncros an selector forks.

Hi, I'm new to this forum so hello etc... However, I also used to be a gearbox designer for Caterpillar so allbeit slightly smaller most of the issues you guys are having seem to ring a few bells!! My Octavia RS (1) occasionally dogs when going into 1st - this is where no matter how hard you push, it just wont go into gear. Pumping the clutch once will sort this out and it's not serious - it's just that the dog teeth in the synchronisor have stopped tip to tip instead of indexing left or right to allow the baulk ring past. Nothing can be done about it, it just pot luck but nothing's broken - just don't push too hard!!

If it doesn't go into gear repeatedly this is a little more alarming - firstly it could be a simple case of clutch drag - synchronisors have tiny little clutches in them to synchronise the shaft speeds, they're no match for the main clutch so the shaft's will never synchronise!! Alternatively, the synchronisor clutch is giving out or the dogs are knackered (those dogs again!). Ooooor the shift rails and associated linkages are sticking or catching - have you bottomed your car out rescently? this can also account for not comming out of gear again - Broken synchronisor or stuck linkages. I really cold go on about this all day - I used to test gearboxes to destruction so know most of the common or not so common failures. Sometimes it pays to take a sample of the transmission fluid - bronze or silver glitter in it is really, really, really bad!!

Zebedee: Reckon your 3rd/4th synchro was probably knackered before you forced it - forcing it probably did for the selector fork - they're not that strong!!