I've noticed that when going into 1st and 2nd, I feel an extra 'notch' to get by before the car is cleanly in gear. Whith 3rd-5th the actions is smooth with only one 'notch' to get by.<p>Could this be the syncros? I bought the car used with 22k, but its in excellent shape.<p>thanks<br>adrian<br>97 1.8T qms

I just don't understand what the big deal is about this 'notchy thing'. I've driven sticks of all kinds of makes since I was 16 and they all do this in varying degrees from time to time. Even Porsche's and BMWs have this as I've noticed. My brother's Porsche, is amazingly hard to get in gear sometimes (and this is normal I'm told). My one Honda was very bad. One lady I was trying to sell it to didn't want it after she test drove it because it was 'too hard to shift through the gears".<br>I know that when you have a cold morning it is more noticeable and then I just do that thing I learned from the racing tape "Drive to Win" where you pause for a split second in neutral position before going in to the next gear. That always makes a nice smooth transition because you allow one gate to close and the other to open.<br>Most of the time this is not necessary though. What I don't get is why this is a big deal. It's the same on pretty much all manual shifts.<br>-C.

I've owned 8 manual-transmission cars in the last 15 years (American, Japanese, and German), and I would not consider ANY of them (bought new or used) to have been "notchy." OTOH, a friend drove my '87 325is and said, "Compared to my Integra, this thing is hard to shift." I've driven his Acura, and it shifts no smoother, IMO. I think my A4 (now with 6K mi.) shifts great, but Albert just bought one that literally jumps out of gear, so, go figure.<p>-- David F.<br>1.8TqMS<br>E30 325is<br>

Cathleen,<p>I've only been driving my manual 1.8T for about 2 months now, but what I don't get is that it happens sometimes, and other times it feels silky smooth with NO notches in ANY gears....feels even better than my friend's prelude (nice slick shifter). I read your recent post when this discussion came about a few weeks back, and I tried leaving the gear shift in neutral for a second before going into the next gear, it still happens. The crazy thing is that it sometimes shifts silky smooth wether I leave it in neutral between shifts or not....this is not temp. related because I understand that all manuals are stiff when cold...so my observations are from when the car has warmed up...<p>Anyway, I think I'll have the tech just check it out at my service....<p>-Ash 98.5 Silver 1.8TQMS

I know that all manuals are notchy. This is because you're basically pulling that car out of one gear cog and jamming it into another.<p>The problem I'm seeing is that it sometimes does not feel like its seated properly in gear. Going from 1st to 2nd, I can tell by the feeling that If I did not give it that extra little pull and holding it there for a split second, the car would probably jump out of gear. BTW, this has happened to me once.

I understood what you meant. There have been a lot of posts on it lately. Chunky, notchy, wants to 'pop' out or just plain doesn't seem to always go in as smoothly as it should. This also was what I was referring to in the Porsche and my Honda.<br>But, have you tried what I was saying about the quick pause?<br>Sometimes it helps if you are experiencing this on a car. If this happens to me when I try to just straight shift through with no pause when I first start driving the car. If I pull back to hard resistance, I go back to neutral, clutch out, clutch in and retry.<br>This has worked on sticks of all kinds that I drive. Even on the manual (yes!) Ford Explorer my brother owns! It gets jammed up too and I just pause or if worst case as above, do the double clutch thing.<br>It's not all the time that this happens so, perhaps if you find this on every single shift all day long you do have a problem. I only tend to encounter it on cold mornings or when a car has been sitting a while.<br>-C.

I understand what you're saying as well. And I do pause (especially when the car is cold, or has been sitting for while) in neutral when going from one gear to another ... and this helps greatly.<p>I've also driven / owned other manuals, but have never had this ( popping out of gear) happen witha german car before (525, 535, 540, M5, 928, 911). Even though the gearbox felt cold, the car would not just jump out of gear after applying throttle.<p>As you said, this problem does go away after the car warms up. I'll probably have my dealer check it anyway. If they say its OK, then I'm not going to worry about it one bit !<p>BTW, I only owned the 530 and 928, the others are all friends' cars. ;)

I don't seem to have it frequently enough to be an issue. The synchros in the Porsche were much harder and took some getting used to. I would try to get the dang thing in reverse and it would pop out of gear. This was tough on the ego because I was just not used to it and my sister-in-law, who is no car fanatic like myself, can even do it without a problem now. Practice does make one better!<br>On the A4, it will sometimes get stuck from 1 to 2 but I have never had mine actually pop out of the gear once I finally get it in. (OK anyone else reading this...No dirty comments please!) It wouldn't hurt to have the dealer take a look. :)<br>-C.

Here are a couple of things that brought everything to a head:<p>1. Live in NY and we just had a unusually cold week for november (30's). And the problem was most pronounced in the morning.<p>2. The last car I had was a 535 and the BMW shift linkage is a bar ... the audi's are cable. This would lead me to believe that there is more flex in the audi's<p>3. The a4 shifts really smooooth. This lead me to not shif with the 'authority' that I should have been. <p>4. During the 1-2 shift, I tend to pull the stick towards me and down, which I just found makes it worse. <p>I think that most of the people (including me) posting messages about chunky shifting just have not had the time to get used to it.<p>BTW, what's on your mind ? I don't think anyone would have even connected that popping out thing. :)

AdrianZ,.. where about in NY are you? <br>I'm in Rochester *burr*<p>Cris<br>

Sounds logical to me. I know that I think I don't do the best shifting in the morning, being half-awake and a little lazy. The pause-shift thing seems to help in my case, at least.<br>I don't know what's on my mind...I just read the sentence over and thought it sounded kind of funny.<br>-Cathleen<br>

I just re-read (like I was proofreading) your 'poppin' note and that sentance did sound pretty funny :) thanks for your help. What kind of racing video was that ? instructional? who publishes it? is it part of a series? <p>I've been to Skip Barber in Limerock CT for road driving school, and signed up for racing school :) yippee. I'd like to check out those videos (if they're any good .. sonds like they are) before I get there .... get my feet wet.<p>:)<br>adrian

Sorry, no computer at home yet!<br>I just saw your post.<br>The video "Drive to Win" about racing techniques; I don't remember who published it. I don't have access to the video anymore....ex-BF owns it.<br>I don't have any AutoWeek issues with me, but check the back/advetisements. They may have some info. Also, surf web and check out the larger bookstores. I find these books/videos useful.<br>What racing school are you going to? I hope to go to some in spring.<br>I read a book about racing techniques (it's at home so I can't tell you the name of it, etc.) and they had hot laps of several well-known tracks. I read the hot lap of Road America right before the QCUSA Road America event(my second time at R.A.). It made some sense but then after actually doing what it said and getting my line/memory back....it was like "Ah HA!"<br>I still have much difficulty with heel/toe technique because the A4's throttle is set too far back for me and my foot slips off the brake when I angle it enough to touch. So I have to improvise a little in getting my braking done, moving my foot to throttle to blip and then shift, engage clutch. It is not the best....but it works okay enough is most situations so far.<br>-C.<br>