Hello everyone. In my 1.9 TDI I sometimes come to a stop at some lights or a junction, go to engage first and it absolutely won't engage. I have to half put it in to second and then push back up to first at which point it engages fine. Not all the time but enough to be annoying. I've not experienced this on any other modern car.

Anyone else ever experience this?

You could first eliminate clutch drag by checking that the clutch is adjusted correctly

But wouldn't it happen more often if it was the clutch that was not properly adjusted? When it happens, it doesn't feel like it will nearly go, like I could crunch it in, it feels very solidly shut out. That said, I did have the clutch and flywheel replaced a few thousand miles ago. The other thing I noticed is that now when the car is cold and I very slightly depress the clutch pedal, there is a knocking / vibration. This goes away after a few minutes as the car warms up.

I thought that clutch adjustment is automatic on the Octy (and Fabia).

It might just be that the cogs are not quite in the right place to slip into gear smoothly and to select 2nd or 3rd and then back to 1st is the answer. I had this problem on my Fabia 1.4mpi and just worked around it, but I did find that it only happened when stationary. If I came up to a junction and at less than 4mph slipped from 2nd to 1st it always went smoothly.

I now have an Octy vRS TDI and have very occasionally had this baulking on the 'box when crawling in heavy traffic. I don't consider it to be a problem, just a quirk.

Hello everyone. In my 1.9 TDI I sometimes come to a stop at some lights or a junction, go to engage first and it absolutely won't engage. I have to half put it in to second and then push back up to first at which point it engages fine. Not all the time but enough to be annoying. I've not experienced this on any other modern car.

Anyone else ever experience this?

If its any consolation, my mazda3 does this, so much so it feels and whines like non-synchro-ed reverse. Apparently it is a characteristic rather than a fault. And a friend reported the same quirk in his mini cooper so you're not alone:thumbup:

The clutch is hydraulic so IIRC isn't adjustable.

Hello everyone. In my 1.9 TDI I sometimes come to a stop at some lights or a junction, go to engage first and it absolutely won't engage. I have to half put it in to second and then push back up to first at which point it engages fine. Not all the time but enough to be annoying. I've not experienced this on any other modern car.

Anyone else ever experience this?

Happens every so often on my 1.9 as well. Strangely enough also on my 5-speed 1.8 petrol Passat a few years back.