by SIMBAT » Thu Mar 19, 2015 8:05 pm
Have you installed a short shifter or had any work done on your car that would have had the gearstick assembly disassembled?
Just as a background to let you know how the revers lockout works there is a cam gear attached to a cable that rotates when you pull up the collar on the gearstick... when you are not in the reverse the cam is in its relaxed position, lets say the cam is pointing at 12 o'clock when it is "relaxed" when you pull up on the collar to go into reverse the cap points to 3 o'clock...
Now those are the two positions that the cam gear is supposed to operate at however if for some reason the cable gets over stretched/tensioned or wrongly adjusted it is possible for the cam gear to change from its relaxed position at 12 o'clock to being relaxed at 3, meaning when you pull up on the collar the cam would point at 6 o'clock, its hard to understand but at 6 o'clock the transmission is in the same state as if it were at 12. This is why it would seem that the roles of the collar being up and down have reversed. I am 100% sure that is what is happening, so the cam gear is resting in the wrong position.
There is an adjustment in the tension of the cable its just a bitch to get to but basically you have to get under the car (safely) tale off some heat shields from the exhaust which is a pain in the ass then look where the gear shifter shaft goes up and you'll the a little black cable next to it, just follow that cable towards the engine (obviously) and you'll see where it ends is the actually cam gear I'm talking about. Then if you go back along the cable 10-20cm you will see where the cable passes through a fixed bracket and there are some nuts on either side sandwiching the bracket.
In your case you will have to loosen the nut thats closer to the rear of the car first then tighten up the other nut until it sandwiches the bracket again this will hopefully give the cable more slack to make the cam operate in its proper positions. If you max out the adjustment you have then in the cable then well have to take about another way to fix the problem.
my12 VW Tiguan TDI-tuned
my16 Hyper Blue WRX STI
my16 Honda Jazz VTI