I have had the car for nearly a week, 250 miles now. From the outside, in Petrol Blue, it's the best looking car in the carpark. From the inside it's well sorted and very roomy, especially in the back. To drive, the 1.5 petrol engine is fine and does not have the jerky habits it had in the Octavia 3 which was my previous car. My only problem is the gear change. The change from 2nd to 3rd and 4th to 3rd is not easy. The gear lever  pushes back three times as you engage third. The third push-back is the strongest and I have to concentrate and push hard to make sure the gear engages. I took the car back to the garage and the tech. re-calibrated the gear change mechanism.  The set up is slightly better but still requires great concentration and deliberation to select 3rd gear. If third has not been selected correctly, the gears do not mesh correctly and the gear box makes the sound of grinding gears and progress of the car obviously stops.  This effect makes me very anxious every time I use 3rd gear, I am never sure if 3rd has correctly engaged. 

I do not know if the shift will improve with miles but I will register my complaint with Skoda.  Does anyone else find the gear box sub-optimal?

The mark 111 was so smooth gearbox wize

The gearbox on mine is fine, absolutely no problems and was fine from new.

Had the same problem with 4th when I first got it, either I am used to it and a bit more cautious now or the problem has gone away.  I noticed it more during the first 100 miles but have now done 260 and it seems fine.

Whilst you're here, would you mind checking out my other thread and tell me what you're able to do in terms of setting up Skoda Connect, as we both have the same level of MkIV?

Yep, 3rd into 4th just seems to resist a little. 

 

Sorry Larryli81, I do not have a smart phone and I do not know about Skoda Connect, but I think I have read that there is a software update, on this website.

The car is going back to the sellers next week for a proper extended test and inspection, I will let you all know what the result is.

The baulky gear change doesn’t sound right. I can move mine all around the box with 2 fingers - it’s a very light change.

Thanks SUTTS, the change on mine is very unpredictable, the worse I've ever known. It never 'falls in' and sometimes really pushes back. It's back to the dealers next week for attention.

3rd to 4th has a little resistance for me but doesn't feel like it shouldn't be there (I'm not explaining that well).

 

It kind of feels like the little notch you get when it settles into neutral and then another notch into 4th. I just assumed it was supposed to be like that, caught me out the first few days until I was used to it.

Edited 10 November, 20205 yr by WhiskyJamJar

Another MK4 user with similar problem. In this case the engine is 2.0 TDI with 115hp and manual gearbox. All transitions are smooth but changing from 2nd to 3rd is nightmare. Halfway through the gear change maneuver from N to 3rd the lever gets stuck and you have to push it really hard into the gear. Has anyone experienced something similar, maybe on older models? Octavia has done 2500 miles and the problem is still there.

Also when 3rd gear is engaged and clutch is released it happened 4 times now that the gearbox had some strange squeaky noise.
And the suspension is also not okay. When driving faster @45 mph into a corner and there is a pothole or bad road the suspension gives the sound that reminds me of scratching some plastic part over an asphalt.

?

Is this the latest VW Group manual gearbox that is to give better economy and help get lower emissions / WLTP / RDE2 results ?

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/under-skin-why-volkswagen-bringing-back-manual-gearboxes

If so they will eventually have them sorted, maybe in a few years time after owners do the testing in the real world.

Trakus, your problem sounds similar to mine. On my car, it seems to be better with the engine cold but as it warms up, the 2nd to 3rd change becomes more difficult. I don't know about a strange squeaky noise. On mine, when you think you have correctly selected 3rd and lift the clutch, I sometimes get a noise of gears touching but not properly engaged followed by rapid loss of progress as I try again and have to give the gear lever a really good shove.  Third gear has become so unpredictable that I am now changing from second to fourth and trying to avoid 3rd altogether.

Roottoot, thanks for the info, that's interesting, I will follow the link.

This is interesting to hear as I haven't had problems engaging third and it feeling notchy  but have experienced the same issue as you SoupDragon when lifting the clutch you can sometimes hear the gears grinding as if I haven't depressed the clutch enough. It's only in third though.

It's not a subtle noise, it's a bad noise of mechanical distress. It's the gears have not fully engaged and are rattling against each other. the trouble is that when you changed to third it felt that the gears had gone in correctly. Is that what you are hearing? Also, with third not engaged, the car slows and you have to try again with a very strong push.

15 hours ago, SoupDragon said:

It's not a subtle noise, it's a bad noise of mechanical distress. It's the gears have not fully engaged and are rattling against each other. the trouble is that when you changed to third it felt that the gears had gone in correctly. Is that what you are hearing? Also, with third not engaged, the car slows and you have to try again with a very strong push.

 

No it's not subtle at all, my kids if they are in the car take the proverbial and passers by look at me like I can't drive 

 

Yeah, it feels like a normal change but when releasing the clutch it's like I haven't engaged it fully and it pops out of gear making that screech.

Fishcann, You have put it into words. that is exactly what happens to me.

This screeching thing when changing to the 3rd gear is getting worse and worse. Since it's really cold here in Slovenia (-5 deegres in the morning) the sound got even more noticeable. Tomorrow the car will be taken to the dealer and they will look into the problem over the weekend and untill Monday. Rattling of the suspension is still present. Has anyone solved the gearbox problem?

I took mine back to the dealer a second time and they agreed the gear box was difficult. They contacted Skoda UK and they were not aware of a problem. The dealer tried another brand new MK4 and said the gear box on that car was also difficult. They asked me to put some miles on the car, about 1,000 and come back for further testing.

I am OK to do that because the dealer agreed that there was a problem and registered that I had made a complaint. So now with about 750 miles covered, I think that the gear box has improved or that I am more used to it. The mis-selection of 3rd does not happen so often but I still occasionally miss 3rd gear.

Dealer spent 11 days trying to solve the gearbox problem. They didn't found anything, but since the annoying sound was getting more and more frequent they replaced the whole gearbox under the warranty. Changing gears is now smooth and without any problems.

That’s good news, glad it’s sorted. 

After 1200 miles I still have the same problem which is that 3rd gear selection is unreliable, sometimes in and sometimes not. The dealer is going to replace the gear box when a new one becomes available. After that mileage, I am still uncertain that 3rd is engaged. Either the resistance  from the gear change mechanism is so strong that I think the gear is selected when it is not, or the gear jumps out as soon as I release the clutch. I will let you know what happens next. I will say that I am getting full support from the dealers and the car is a beaut, especially in petrol blue.

 

I've only had mine a week and not driven too far, but have had a few issues getting into third (stick just didn't go far enough forwards in the gate and I got the grinding noise when lifting the clutch as it wasn't properly in gear, making me look like I don't know how to drive!!).  Will have to monitor but useful to see others having this issue too, as I thought it was just me being lazy on the gear change.  For ref mine's a 2.0 TDi