Gearbox Issues....Any advice?

[TomB]

Apologies in advance for the long post, but a bit of background might be necessary.
About 2 months ago, my GTD broke down after 3 hours of driving, when it started dropping out of 5th gear at 70mph.  I than had trouble getting it to engage 2nd and 4th, and actually moving the car in 1st & reverse proved to be very ticky until a lot of brute force was applied.
The trouble turned out to be low box oil causing the 5th cog to overheat, and I think that I may have done some longer lasting damage.
All topped up, it's been behaving fine until today.  I did a 4.5 hour journey yesterday with no problem yesterday, but on the return journey today it started playing up.  After approximately 3 hours almost constantly in 5th, it dropped out again into neutral.  I put it back in, and after a minute, out it popped.
I pulled over at the services and let it cool for 15 minutes, but after setting out it started playing up after about 3 minutes.  I ran it in 4th for about half an hour, then tried 5th again, and this time there were no problems for about half and I managed to get home.
Firstly, any idea what's causing it to drop out of gear?  My supposition is that I've damaged the 5th cog, and that's the reason it's able to jump out.  However, I don't know why it's doing it intermittently.  Any advice?
Also. I'd like to get it fixed, so I'm guessing it's a new box...  Can anyone tell me what box is in the Mk2 GTD?  Is it the 080?
Thanks for reading this far  
Tom

[jtanguay]

weird problem...   as I dont know much about it, something is definitely broken.  my brother had an old chevy s10 truck with a bad transmission... 1st gear would always pop out on a load.  thank god it wasn't 5th though... 1st gear never lasts that long anyways.. just gotta hold er there  

[saurkraut]

Popping out of fifth means fifth gear is done.

http://brokevw.com/0205thdamage.html

Eventually it will fail catistropically and destroy the transmission.  Do not use fifth gear if you are contemplating repairing the trany.

Fifth gear can be changed with out removing the trany.  I've never done it.  Maybe you can find a shop that can do it for you.

[burn_your_money]

Sounds like you are low on tranny fluid. If your car ever pops out of 5th on you, never put it back in 5th. Drive to the nearest service station in 4th, or pull over and let it cool down and add some more tranny fluid.
As previously mentioned you can remove the 5th gear with the tranny installed. I'd take off the cover and see if there are any missing pieces on the gear/synchros. If there are I would definitly get a new tranny as those missing peices will most likely demolish your transmission.

You have a 020 transmission. You can find the specific tranny code on the bottom of the bellhousing on the tranny. Just lift the car up on the DS front and then look at the bottom of the tranny. There will be a flat spot with some numbers and letters. You're looking for a combintion of letters/numbers that match one of the codes in this link www.scirocco.org/gears

[macsdub]

yep,5th is toast
i was gonna post up broke's link :cry:
he didnt have a quick repair for my gearbox though(lol)
which on saturday night,while puttin a serious hurtin on a ricer
it decided to let 3rd gear be free of its annoying teeth :shock:
yea i even let him have 4 or 5 lenghts off the line+i was comin up on him when i went for 3rd+it just went grrrr as all the teeth came off,,so  i went for 4th,and still blew past him,lol lol
oh well the tdi-m claims another gearbox :twisted:
i know the teeth are gone cause with it idling you can put it in 3rd without hitting the clutch,and 2nd makes some horrible noises,and reverse is intermittent,itll roll back+stop with nasty gear teeth puttin a hurtin on hte reverse gears......
ill have to start finding these things in lots of ten
 :wink:

[TomB]

Low gearbox oil was definately what cause it to happen the first time, but after getting it topped up, when it started doing it again intermittently, that was the first thing I checked, and the oil levels are fine.  That's one of the things that's confusing me.
I'm going to do a full drain and refill and see how many bits of metal come out when I do....
Thanks for all your advice guys, I've managed to find out that it's a 4T gearbox that I need.  All I have to do now is track one down....
Cheers,
Tom

[burn_your_money]

A 4T???

[jtanguay]

must be a european thing

[saurkraut]

The low gearbox oil did the damage the first time.

The damage is permanent.

The bearings inside the gearset are shot.

Topping up the oil will not fix the damage that was done the first time.

You were just lucky, some times when it pops out of gear the first time, and you put it back into fifth, the fifth gear grenades.

There should be no mistery here.  Your gearbox is shot.  It needs a rebuild.  If you continue to drive it in this condition, it will fail soon, and  catastrophically.

[jtanguay]

The low gearbox oil did the damage the first time.

The damage is permanent.

The bearings inside the gearset are shot.

Topping up the oil will not fix the damage that was done the first time.

You were just lucky, some times when it pops out of gear the first time, and you put it back into fifth, the fifth gear grenades.

There should be no mistery here.  Your gearbox is shot.  It needs a rebuild.  If you continue to drive it in this condition, it will fail soon, and  catastrophically.

this is the point where if your car had warranty... you would continue to drive it...  :twisted:

[burn_your_money]

this is the point where if your car had warranty... you would continue to drive it...  :twisted:

Not just drive it, but drive it hard

I'm curious, what are the gearings like on a 4T?

[Hillshy]

Hi Tomb,

T4, yup,  i had one of these boxes a month ago, the box may be up for sale again if you need one?

i will explain the why, i had up until 6-8 weeks ago a mk1 cabrio 16v, which i'd owned for 8 yrs,after much much head scratching i gave into mate who had been bugging me for ages to part with it. i had already started on a new project (T25) so it seemed a good time to let her go.

Apart from a worn syncro in 1st its a sweet ride. its never really bothered me enough to sort the 1st gear problem as it was only slightly worn, anyway this guy is getting the car totally presto ££££ and asked me if i knew anyone who had a Box for sale. as it happened I had just purchased an engine + box form an eco diesel mk2, the guy didnt want to split so i purchased both. I have a t25 caravelle so the box was not needed by me.

I more or less gave him the box, like £50. I told him the drive shaft flanges will be smaller on the diesel box/ larger on the petrol and they can be swapped around if you have the right tools, for some reason he opted to get the Org 8v box rebuilt, so the T4 diesel 5spd is sitting in his garage gathering dust, I would expect him as he's a friend not to sell for an over inflated price as I only charged him £50 i'd expect the same sort of price. :wink:


let me know if you need a box if you run out of options.

hillshy

[Hillshy]

error

[Hillshy]

silly me  :oops: its actually 020 as correctly informed in the link which I totally missed 1st time round. 4t 020. what is can do is get the codes off the box as the general vibe seems to be that the you're box is shot or soon will be.


saurkraut, that's a good link
regards
Stu

[Patrick]

Don't give up un that tranny yet. I had an 84 Jetta with an 020 code 7A (1.7 gas) that was jumping out of 5th when I got it. The guy I got it from had been running it in 4th so long he forgot it was a 5 speed. dumped the oil and refilled to the proper level, no more jumping out of 5th. Pounded the car four more years, about 50,000 km a year, never had a problem with it. Still have the tranny in stock, leaks oil, probably needs seal and then some, but it worked in all 5 gears when I pulled it.