First for everything. 90 1.6 TD Lost 5th gear.

[Vangruver]

1990 Turbo Diesel, no engine mods, no injection pump mods, just a mandrel bent down pipe and 2.5 inch no-cat exhaust.

Canadian car, with 480000km or 298000 miles on it. Rebuilt head, original block original pistons.

Great car, really great car. First car i've ever considered wanting to restore.

Driving down a highway doing about 90km or 55mph while the tranny was sitting in 5th, where all of a sudden the transmission decides that it doesn't want to be in 5th.

Kind of startled me, so i clutched in, shifted out of 5th into neutral and put it back in 5th slowly let out the clutch, and it started to grind.

Okay. Put it into 4th and leave it there so i can get home.

Get home, park it into my car port and didn't know what to do. The car drives fine from first to fourth, well i had to go through town after exiting the highway.

Leave the car in the carport and later that evening, i had to run to the bank......clutched it in, started the car, starts fine. Put the shifter into neutral, and let the clutch out and it's starting to make a whirring sound, louder than having the clutch engaged normally when in neutral.

Drive the car, and it's started to make more of a mild grinding sound. [music off, HVAC fan off window down slightly to hear it running]

Drive to the bank, and drive home, attempted 5th to see if it was the sloppy shift linkages, and still no engagement.

This morning. I'm up, get to the car, pull out the enrichment lever, turn the key to warm the plugs up, start the car with the clutch depressed, put the shifter into neutral, and let the clutch out.....mega sounds coming from the transmission.

Drive it, drive it, drive it, and the sound goes away, still only getting usage of 1 through 4.

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within the last week, I had my mechanic [a vw specialty shop http://www.shiftautosport.ca/ FANTASTIC guys btw] tell me after an oil change/vehicle inspection, that my shift linkages are sloppy. The bushings need replacing, and the ball/cup area is all worn out.

I knew this, but it didn't really bother me TOO much at the time. As I've already driven the car plenty before hand. ie: Vancouver BC to SF California, BC to alberta canada trips etc. And it's been totally fine.

I don't know anything more than what I've been told by my mechanic, but am I safe to presume that transmission fluid and OR the shift linkages/bushings are to blame for this? or could it be more severe like inside the transmission itself?

I have a feeling this transmission is going to pack it in, so I'm already on the hunt for another turbo diesel tranny, but I'm probably going to get the shop to do a full rebuild with a new clutch, taller 5th gear for hwy cruising and most likely an LSD to keep this car more fun.

All and any help greatly appreciated.

and a picture of my car for good measure

[theman53]

DONT USE 5th again.

Go to brokevw page and research, but IIRC the pop out of 5th is the begining of bad things.

I just found the 5th damage page...
http://www.brokevw.com/0205thdamage.html

[Vangruver]

5th is out of the question. 100%.

I'm en route to search for another turbo diesel tranny, and potentially rebuilding that to have a taller 5th? [that's pretty much an option]

I do have another car that is in sites within reason, an 85 GTI 8v with 215km on the car. I could buy this, drive it around and park the TD till i make it pretty

but yeah no more will i use 5th gear.

[rallydiesel]

Most common reason for losing 5th is running without enough trans fluid. 5th is the first to suffer due to its location and it overheats, softening the gear teeth and gradually wearing them down. Another possibility, which happened to me last year, is that someone replaced 5th at some point and damaged the output shaft splines pressing/hammering the new gear on. If its the former, than a 5th swap is quite quick and simple. However, since you have had bad noises in other gears, you should definitely rebuild or swap in another good trans.

[Vangruver]

Most common reason for losing 5th is running without enough trans fluid. 5th is the first to suffer due to its location and it overheats, softening the gear teeth and gradually wearing them down. Another possibility, which happened to me last year, is that someone replaced 5th at some point and damaged the output shaft splines pressing/hammering the new gear on. If its the former, than a 5th swap is quite quick and simple. However, since you have had bad noises in other gears, you should definitely rebuild or swap in another good trans.

When you say bad noises, does that mean or refer to non smooth gear engagement? Grinding into gears when upshifting? or downshifting?

The sound I have goes away, and I'm seriously contemplating getting my shop to do a complete flush on the fluid that's in there and refilling it with tranny fluid to subside the necessity at the moment. But is that worth it? i know I won't be able to get out all the metal particles within, but it could prolong the replacement till i find a suitable doner tranny right?

[theman53]

As long as you stay away from 5th you should be ok.

That is an interweb guess. It could be something else, but if you loose 5th and the gear breaks in 1/2 then the trans is junk. This way you could swap 5th with a good one and all is well.

[rallydiesel]

You mentioned "mega noises" in neutral. All the gears keep turning while in neutral. If there are chunks floating around they can still damage the gears despite avoiding 5th. At this point, you have nothing to lose by draining and refilling the trans fluid and continuing running this trans.

[macka]

see if you can find an eco diesel tranny, people with the ecodiesel tend to abuse the clutch more, but don't generally drop the hammer on them.

[Vangruver]

You mentioned "mega noises" in neutral. All the gears keep turning while in neutral. If there are chunks floating around they can still damage the gears despite avoiding 5th. At this point, you have nothing to lose by draining and refilling the trans fluid and continuing running this trans.

yeah, good call.

I have grown to appreciate this car more and more now. So I'm not worried about spending the money, as I'd really like to see this car reset the odometer! It's possible.

I have bikes/motorcycles to ride in the summer time, but being that it's chilly now, it just sucks that this had to happen NOW.

[Patrick]

First thing to do is make sure you have enough oil in the tranny. I had one do this, (7A trans in a mark 1 car) . Drove it for years after with 5th gear working fine.
Other than that, keep your eyes open for another trans....

[damac]

I had mine pop out a few times in 5th gear just the other day and freaked because I had read this is doom and gloom for these trannys.

A record cold snowy storm was coming in so I don't know if this had anything to do with it.

In my situation I got my jetta with about 200,000 miles on what I think are all original parts.  I did order a new shift kit with metal adjustable shift linkages and replaced the parts in the box as well to start fresh.  I did my best to adjust it but it wasn't quite the same as the stock setup when I was done.

I was having trouble honing in my 5th gear shift point so I did something kind of wrong and adjusted the shift lever linkage by loosening it and putting the car in reverse so the light would go on   This wasn't perfect but I could reach all gears with some practice so I left it alone until now.

I had also forgotten that I had to take my new tranny mount out because it was vibrating the dash like crazy.  Some place I bought it from said it was an upgrade but it was terrible so I put the old one back in.

My old one is so bad that if I hold my hand on the stick and stab/let off the throttle I can feel it try and take itself out of gear.  I also get a clunk from everything shifting when I stab/let off the throttle.

(Note I have been working on rebuilding my car for months before I got it back on the road about a month ago).

So just yesterday the storm passed and the sun was out and I could shift like before and I am not dripping any oil. 

Sorry for the babbling but I think you need to look over the basics first

Another interesting thing I found is that when I had the hardcore tranny mount in, none of the clunking was present.  Shifting felt solid and I actually had to readjust my shift linkage(again the bad way) to get it to feel right in that moment.

I am ordering a new oem tranny mount now and will use the vw tool and reset my shifter box linkage and then force myself to adjust my linkage under the hood and go from there and hopefully all is well for me for a while.  Hopefully you are as lucky.