I recently bought a 1998 1.8ltr Volvo V40 with only 80,000 miles (looks like it's only done 20,000) and I'm pleased with the deal, but...... Selecting 1sr gear is a real pain. The gate is tight (the one for 3rd seems very open and floppy) and seems often to need a couple of hits to make it home. Sometimes seems to help to select 2nd then go through to 1st. Reverse doesn't seem to be aproblem. Gearbox seems otherwise tight (no shunt) and quiet.

I'm going to guess at worn gear selector bushes both on the gearstick end and possibly the selector arms outside the gearbox. Does this sound feasible?

Would really appreciate advice from this excellent looking forum for the new workhorse,

Many thanks!

CO

 

Had same problem last year on my 97 V40 2.0SE. I had two problems though. First was a leaking clutch slave cylinder that needed pumping to get 1st enganged, then few months after that I had same problem but this time it was the mounting bobbins for the gear lever transfer rods (where they mount in the 'transmission tunnel and the gear leaver joins) Garage replaced the bobbins for peanuts, I mean cheaply not with peanuts, and was all OK for about a year.

However problem has now come back again and I think it could be the selector forks this time or the bobbins are not that good. I'm a bit heavy with the right foot and I think the engine mounts are getting a bit worn (150k miles) so the engine rocks a bit on takeoff. This puts a lot of strain on the gear change bobbins and makes them fail prematurely.

Grew up with Minis putting out more than 3 times their designed BHP so learnt about stressing parts the hard way. The answer in that case was to replace the rubber parts with Delrin (Acetal), but passenger comfort wasn't an issue back then. [:-]

 

cwworth - Thanks! Seems like I may be thinking along the right initial lines. TodayI found that engaging 1st was easy if I slightly lifted the reverse lockkout collar, which I guess means the gearstick is able to go across the gate just that little bit more so it can find it's gate inamongst all the slack.

I'll have it looked at at a local garage and hope those monkeys are also happy to work for peanuts

Hope you find a solution for your problem soon,

Cheers,

CO