transmission trouble

[96ssat]

1996 Passat GLX

recently my transmission has been very finicky. occasionally, It has trouble going into first. If I am coming into a stop with my cluth in, and attempt to put it into first going faster than a few mphs, gears grind. Likewise, if i am at a stop in neutral, and attempt to put into first, it occasionally does not want to go in. Either way it goes into gear fine if i am moving slowly, get gears moving.

anybody have any thoughts/insight

synchro wear? new trans? i hope not the latter

[boschmann]

Are you sure it has the correct gear oil & is full? VW reccomended SAE 80W-90 (at least GL-4) oil or you could try 75W-90 Synthetic. VW also says it never needs changing, but I would every 90K miles.

[formerg60]

I believe there is a tech bulletin which states that if the car upshifts quickly, leaving you little power on tap the Transmission Control Module(TCM) needs to be replaced. For the time being I get around this by using the tiptronic(pseudo-manual) mode.