Sorry about the length of the post guys but I've got two possibly related gearbox issues on my car and I thought I'd give as much detail as possible. It's a 2004 PD150 Leon mk 1 TDI which has now covered 100k miles
1) When bringing the clutch in and out when changing into and out of 5th gear there is a whirring / whining type noise, the pitch of which increases with the revs. It doesn’t happen in any other gear so I've been bypassing 5th for a while now, but there is a bit of noise in 6th that didn’t use to be there, particulary when lifting off. It's not much, a quiet whine, but it seems to be a symptom of the same problem.
The car has been in to a local garage to have the gearbox oil changed, this has made no appreciable difference but did reveal the oil was dirtier than they'd have expected. Susbsequently it's been in to Geartech near Kidderminster who say the issue is the 5th gear bearing wearing into the casing of the box and it's a common issue on 6 speed VAG boxes. The fix is to replace the input bearing with a larger one (as used on later boxes) and this means machining the casing to accept it. Some of my recollection of the technical details may be slightly off but it all seems to make sense. The fix obviously isn’t cheap (£600 odd assuming the gears themselves aren't damaged) but apparently works and is better than a recon box as it won’t happen again. Is this something others have experienced and is it worth doing or can I continue to drive around it without too much of an issue?
2) The second issue appears related, since the oil was changed the change from 1st to 2nd when the engine is cold has got very notchy and crunches in unless I change slowly and deliberatley. This disappears once the engine is warm when the change seems fine. Could this be related to the 5th gear issue or has low quality oil been used perhaps?
Obviously if I had the 5th gear issue attended to they could investigate the 2nd gear issue and also use high quality oil, the trouble is the cost. My other thought is then if the gearbox has to come out for work would it make sense to replace the clutch at the same time? It's absolutely fine currently but is the original as far as I know. If I'm doing the clutch would it make then sense to put in a Sachs type clutch suitable for a remap? How does the price of these compare to standard? If I'm shelling out for all of this I'll be keeping the car for a while so I'd want a bit of longeviety but I'd also be tempted by some extra performance.
1) When bringing the clutch in and out when changing into and out of 5th gear there is a whirring / whining type noise, the pitch of which increases with the revs. It doesn’t happen in any other gear so I've been bypassing 5th for a while now, but there is a bit of noise in 6th that didn’t use to be there, particulary when lifting off. It's not much, a quiet whine, but it seems to be a symptom of the same problem.
The car has been in to a local garage to have the gearbox oil changed, this has made no appreciable difference but did reveal the oil was dirtier than they'd have expected. Susbsequently it's been in to Geartech near Kidderminster who say the issue is the 5th gear bearing wearing into the casing of the box and it's a common issue on 6 speed VAG boxes. The fix is to replace the input bearing with a larger one (as used on later boxes) and this means machining the casing to accept it. Some of my recollection of the technical details may be slightly off but it all seems to make sense. The fix obviously isn’t cheap (£600 odd assuming the gears themselves aren't damaged) but apparently works and is better than a recon box as it won’t happen again. Is this something others have experienced and is it worth doing or can I continue to drive around it without too much of an issue?
2) The second issue appears related, since the oil was changed the change from 1st to 2nd when the engine is cold has got very notchy and crunches in unless I change slowly and deliberatley. This disappears once the engine is warm when the change seems fine. Could this be related to the 5th gear issue or has low quality oil been used perhaps?
Obviously if I had the 5th gear issue attended to they could investigate the 2nd gear issue and also use high quality oil, the trouble is the cost. My other thought is then if the gearbox has to come out for work would it make sense to replace the clutch at the same time? It's absolutely fine currently but is the original as far as I know. If I'm doing the clutch would it make then sense to put in a Sachs type clutch suitable for a remap? How does the price of these compare to standard? If I'm shelling out for all of this I'll be keeping the car for a while so I'd want a bit of longeviety but I'd also be tempted by some extra performance.
