Hello...and Help please

[oldbeetle]

Hi
I bought a 99 Beetle tdi about 6 months ago with 139k miles and now at 145 k miles. I'm having problems with the manual 5 speed popping out of 5th gear. Tranny was shifting and working great till 2 days ago. I was going down highway at 50mph then speed limit changed to 35. I let off accelerator and was coasting to slow down when I heard this high pitch whine. It lasted for about 10 seconds. Gear selector came out of 5th, and went into neutral on it's own. I can shift it into 5th no problem, but as soon as I release clutch it will pop out. Even if I try and hold it in 5th by hand, as soon as I let out clutch it kicks it out. The only way to get it to stay in 5th is to hold the accelerator down in an attempt to match the engine speed with transmission speed, then if release clutch at the right time and kerp engine under force, it will stay in gear. As long as I'm giving the car a little bit on the accelerator, it will stay in 5th, however if I have to let off the accelerator for any reason it immediately pops out of gear again. All other gears work great. I immediately checked oil and level was good.

I'm sure there must be someone here who has experienced the same problem. If so, what parts are needed and where is the best and cheapest place to acquired these parts?

Any help in this matter is greatly appreciated.

[chittychittybangbang]

What's happening is that when you match engine rpm,the speeds are matched and the gears can go in. Normally, the synchros match any speed difference so that the gears go into place. As a best guess, I would think there is a problem with the synchros. Here is a writeup on how to remove the 5th gear and synchros. http://www.myturbodiesel.com/1000q/m...ar-swap-VW.htm However, I am not sure this is your problem so hopefuly someone who knows transmissions can chime in .

[oldbeetle]

Can I just buy the synchronizer for 5th gear? If so, where and how much?

[chittychittybangbang]

That would be a dealer part, shouldn't be too much. A quick search shows that it might not be the synchos, here are some other possible causes: http://www.wcengineering.com/articles/popout.html

It's almost certainly not the shift linkage, it's probably an internal thing. Luckily, the 5th gear components are easily accessed.

[oldbeetle]

Thanks for the help. Am I the only one who has experienced this problem?