Is my tranny going to explode?

[burn_your_money]

I'm leaning towards yes but I'm hoping to get some other (and hopefully different) opinions from the experts.

I have a 92 TD (ECO mode) jetta with 444xxx kms, not sure of the history of the tranny. It is a 020 4S
Whenever I shift quickly and hammer on the throttle there is a loud thumping noise.
My car will jerk fairly severely if I quickly let off the throttle or go back on it quickly in any gear. It is more pronounced in the lower gears.
I had my front end up on jack stands and I grabbed the DS axle. I was able to spin it about 40 degrees before the PS axle started to spin.
It is very hard to downshift into 3rd, and 2nd and I have to come to a complete stop to get into first 90% of the time. I also usually have to do the second to first shift trick.
Sound like my diff is about to explode or am I just paranoid?

[745 turbogreasel]

is there any rubber left in the mounts?

[flapjack]

Two of my cars had those symptoms and it turned out to be broken motor mounts. The eco broke the rear mount and would act like yours did. My old 16v broke the front twice. When the front mount broke off completely the motor would jump up and down until the intake tube got yanked off the TB!
I think my dubs have some play in the diff as well, but I never took notice of how much.

[jtanguay]

yep that should be your mounts...

my tranny is on its way out and i'm surprised that it hasn't wrecked yet... (2nd gear syncro is busted.. and if i dont shift right it *grinds* and yes... sometimes i just ram it in there  :lol:  and it grinds...)

i remember when my front motor mount was busted... the engine would buck violently in reverse... it was pretty bad... i got a solid mount from a passat and installed it... that thing will last forever... does shake a bit more than i would like, but all in the name of longetivity!!!  

[burn_your_money]

I was thinking it could be my mounts, by I tried spinning the flanges on 2 of my other spare trannies and they were rock solid

[Doug]

Check your lower ball joints, Tyler. The front end will thump like that when one or both are gone. The front motor mount can be the cause of that noise too. Some of the later models had a hydraulic action to the mount that appears solid when stationary but the internal damper fails giving a clunkng sound when the motor torque reaction makes it work. Check around, it seems to me I paid around $70 for a hydraulic damper front mount a few years ago.

[Vincent Waldon]

Been there myself... many times (I usually drive old cars!)... in vague order of probability:

- one or more engine mounts
- ball joints
- control arm bushing... actually had an arm break once.. *there* was a thunk !
- CV joints
- strut bearings / bushings
- tie rods
- diff

Basically anything that adds "slop" to how the engine transmits torque to the wheels can show up as a "thunk" in the tranny, particularly during shifting (or stamping on the pedal and then releasing).

The annoying thing is that alot of this stuff is not obvious when the car's unloaded up on jacks... someday I'm going to take off the hood and hang onto the front bumper while someone else drives so that I can really see what's moving !

And yes, every 020 tranny I've ever owned has a fair amount of diff play.... never had one blow up yet.


Vince

[burn_your_money]

I was driving around for quite a while with a blow up strut mount. When I finally realized it I tried to change it without removing the strut and the bearing had completely exploded. I changed that strut/spring assembly with a good one from one of my parts cars. I didn't change the other side though.

Would putting the car on jack stands, putting it in gear and revving it possibly show me whats wrong? I'll stand beside the car when I'm revving it for safety reasons. Hopefully it doesn't fall off or it will hit my other Jetta...

I just remembered, when I rev my engine and am under the hood the downpipes separate from each other (where the C clamps go) I was thinking it was weak C-clamps but maybe motor mount is more likely. My car also shakes a lot at idle until I bring the RPM to 1200, then it smooths right out

[Vincent Waldon]

I've never had any luck finding things out with the car in the air and in gear...it almost always is such an unnatural attitude for all the various pieces to be in that the symptoms either disappear or change completely.

Given that you get enough torque on reving to separtate the downpipe it's not struts/control arms/tierods any more... my moneys on your mounts.

The "big shakes at idle" is another nail in the coffin of your mounts, IMHO.

[burn_your_money]

yeah the more I think about it the more and more mounts make sense. Hopefully with mounts and a shifter rebuild and new fluid my tranny will fix itself, that'll save a lot of hassle. Now to find the parts...

[jtanguay]

yeah the more I think about it the more and more mounts make sense. Hopefully with mounts and a shifter rebuild and new fluid my tranny will fix itself, that'll save a lot of hassle. Now to find the parts...

yea get some redline mtl in there