Kickdown sticking !

[woodguru]

Ever since I've had my T25 auto, there has been an issue when using the kickdown, occasionally it sticks down, ie, the pedal won't come back up, which means when you've speeded up and are expecting to go to third gear, it doesn't, so the engine starts reving high and drastic measures are required, it hasn't done it for a long time, until Friday, which was a bad one, has anyone else had this problem ?? it has been in the garage several times to see if they can see what the problem is, but obviously not sorted it.
I've had a look in the Haynes manual and it has very little info.

[R0B]

When mine did this it was the small ball joint at the gearbox end that connects the rod to the throttle body.It just needed cleaning and re greasing.

[woodguru]

Thanks, I'll see if I can get to that

[R0B]

Scary when it happens eh? It is reached from the engine compartment.

[woodguru]

Yep. especially when going down hill, approaching red lights !!

[R0B]

I'm 99.9% certain this will be the cause.Let me know how you get on.

[woodguru]

How did you mange to reach it through the engine bay ?! you must have very long thin arms !

[R0B]

It was Steve at gasure who did mine.But im sure that's how he did it.the joint is closer to the throttle body than the gearbox.IIRC.

[RCN]

Sorry to hi-jack, but having a kickdown issue too. Is there a way to adjust the kickdown or set it up? I put mine to the floor on a flat stretch of road, it makes all the right noises but not much in the way of speed increase, or power for that matter.

[R0B]

I know you alter it from the pedal end,but never having to do it can't help with how its done.Dont know if this helps http://www.vanagonparts.com/at_service.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[RCN]

Thanks Rob, that's a great link, I'll be using that to help me out

[R0B]

It would be nice if you let us know if you got this sorted woodguru.

[woodguru]

Hi Rob, I know it's been a while, but I thought I'd give you an update. I've had the van for about 7 - 8 years, in that time it has been serviced, usually when I get it MOT'd, so about once a year in a VW garage, I mentioned this problem to them and they didn't really know what to do about it, I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but that recent kickdown sticking event resulted stupidly high revs, leading to a huge backfire, I thought I'd buggered the engine! Anyway, since I've had the van the oil breather pipe has looked in a poor state, not knowing much about what it did, and the garage not saying anything about it, I let it be, however, although I didn't realise it at the time, that huge backfire was the breather pipe exploding, and a joint on the exhaust too ! I have since put a new breather pipe on and I reckon the bus has gained at least 10% more power, and it seems no damage to the engine.

To get back to the Kickdown issue, last week while driving home from work the vans temp gauge started to climb, I had put water in it that morning, so this was a bit worrying, I parked up to see what the problem was, the filler tank was full, so I thought it must be the thermostat, I called the AA, who arrived in an hour or so, it seems that one of the pipes which run from the engine to the radiator had a small split in it, he filled the water up, and it was leaking like a good'n ! Anyway, he followed me home and the van is now at the garage, the pipes are out of stock for three weeks !! I expect you're wondering what the hell this has to do with the kickdown?? Well when I got the van, the engine blew after a few months, so I had a new engine fitted, with all the old ancillary bits from my old engine, every couple of months or so I would have to top up the coolant, usually about a liter or less, I assumed this was just usual with an old system like this, but now I'm thinking it was probably this pipe leaking, the long plastic pipe runs from front to back, over the fuel tank, and joins onto the engine via a rubber connecting pipe, the leak was happening right on the join, which is very close to the kickdown linkage ! So, I'm now thinking that coolant has been sprayed on the linkage, washing out any grease, resulting in it sticking, since my last post I managed to grease the linkage and it's been fine, except when limping home after the water issues last week, I noticed that it was wanting to stick again !! The AA guy said that the pipes had been joined using a jubilee clip, whereas it should be joined using a spring clip, to allow for expansion, I don't know if this will be of any use to you or anyone, but if you find yourself having to top up the coolant on a regular basis, and are having kickdown issues, it might be worth checking this pipe join, the AA guy did say that he could see where coolant had been spraying onto the side of the gearbox.