Auto Shifter Issues on 2009 TDi

Hi,


I just inherited my wife's old ride - a 2009 Tiguan 2.0 TDi 4motion auto. I am using it to keep the miles down on my Landcruiser however I do like the little Gal as she is very quiet and fuel efficient (the car, not the wife).


What am i here? Well I have a few problems that nobody (mechanics) have been able to help with so i am hoping someone here might be able to shine some light on.


I am having difficultly getting the shifter to select the vanilla 'drive; mode. It is slipping straight into 'manual' mode. my only choice is to pop it further in 'sport' mode. Not ideal. Interestingly we had a problem recently with the reverse lights not coming on and both the dealer (austral vw) and the local VW expert wanted upwards of $4000 to take out the transmission to fix. oddly, the reverse lights started to work when this new problem started. it's looking like a linkage issue, however I would have thought they would be mostly electronic.

Either the cable is out of adjustment, or there's an issue with the shifter mechanism under the centre console.

Umai,

what level of effort is involved getting access to the shifter mechanism / linkage? do you know of a dismantle guide anywhere online? I ask my wife and i have made a decision not to invest in repairs to the car. ..that and two places (mechanics) have had a shot and we have wasted circa $1600 in labor thus far.