Transmission question
 

I bought a used 97 Volkswagen golf Gti pretty much got screwed on it, sucks not knowing much about cars, I don't think there's a single thing that is working as its supposed to :s.

Anyways I got around to hitting the highway last night and found out I can't shift into 5th gear, it's like it's not even there, I push over as far as it will go and push up and it slips into third.

The stick is very loose, even when in gear, all the other gears are fine and the clutch was checked just last week whe I had it in (it's been recently replaced)

If anyone could give me a couple likely scenarios as to what's wrong it would be greatly appreciated , I don't want to take it in and be solely at the mercy of the mechanic :p



Edit:

Ok so i think i just fixed it, I was annoyed so i decided to go down and poke around, started puting it into gears and looking under the hood figuring out what moves what etc, then i reached down and started pushing and pulling.
I noticed there was some kind of plastic clip piece that looked like it wasnt right, so i snapped it back closed and bam!, no more play in the stick and i can put it into all the gears.

Now why it popped open in the first place or points to a bigger issue i dont know, but at the moment i feel very satisfied"

Broken linkage for 5th most likely, shoulda had someone come look at it. And always test all the gears before you buy. Expensive lesson learnt

I talked to someone that claimed to be knowledgeable he seems to think it might just require an adjustment , obviously that's best case scenario and the thing I'm hoping for lol

That's a little optimistic. The car is a 97. It's 15 years old. It will need some work.

Although an expensive mistake, I hope it's a lesson you will remember for the rest of your life. I speak from experience. Always have a car checked out by a mechanic, be it a Revscene sponsor, a family mechanic or a dealership. A few hundred dollars can save you thousands.

For a relatively cheap VW shop (not that VW's are cheap to have fixed... ) try PG Performance. Good shop that does good work and has reasonable prices for VW stuff.

Thanks for the info, assuming it is a broken linkage any idea what something like that will run me? is it a big job?

Ok so i think i just fixed it, I was annoyed so i decided to go down and poke around, started puting it into gears and looking under the hood figuring out what moves what etc, then i reached down and started pushing and pulling.
I noticed there was some kind of plastic clip piece that looked like it wasnt right, so i snapped it back closed and bam!, no more play in the stick and i can put it into all the gears.

Now why it popped open in the first place or points to a bigger issue i dont know, but at the moment i feel very satisfied :p

Because made in mexico.

Congrats!

Nothing like buying an older car to learn all the little things. Everything I know about working on cars I learned it the hard way on my '86 MR2 =)

glad it was an easy fix!

Sounds like this little tidbit of information will be coming in handy for you:

VM Autohaus Inc - Burnaby, BC - 4407 Juneau St | Canpages