I didn't pay extra to have the old box opened up because it was so obviously a catastrophic failure with lots of "glitter" in the drained oil indicating the internals were well contaminated with metallic particles. That said, from the noises, it's pretty obvious it was a final drive problem - ie. directly proportionate to road speed regardless of what gear was selected. I did suspect there was a very slight noise for some weeks before we set off south but it was so slight it was right at the edge of what you could hear and I wasn't convinced it wasn't just the very start of a wheel bearing. My better half couldn't hear anything wrong at all. I spoke with Alan at AVW who lives near me and he said that even if there was a problem he doubted it would be the box as they've never had one go wrong but had done a number of wheel bearings on them. I decided to risk it thinking a wheel bearing would be "fixable" at most garages - maybe involving us in a couple of days in a hotel if the worst came to the worst. The noise got no louder until we were around the Manchester/Birmingham area when it started to get louder and my Mrs said she agreed she thought she could just hear the noise I was talking about. I pulled into a service area and "experimented" in the lorry park by driving around in circles etc but at slow speed there was really little to hear and certainly none of the obvious wheel bearing symptoms like getting noisier when loaded up by swerving side to side.
by now it was getting on in the day and we were heading to my Daughter near Salibury Wilts so probably less than 100 miles to go although I was hearing the noise it wasn't yet "deafening" so I decided to just carry on and accept that the box was taking damage. Already I was guessing it was final drive from the way it was behaving so probably going to need, at the least, a complete rebuild. We made it to daughter's house and I rang the Salisbury SEAT garage who said they were so busy and flooded with customer cars that they couldn't even take it in for diagnosis for at least a fortnight - couldn't even offer to let me leave it with them as they had no space! Luckily my daughter's husband had not yet sold their old KIA (they bought an electric Skoda Enyaq and one of his friend was thinking of buying the old Skoda) so I drove that for the week we were there and parked the Ibiza outside their house. I did jack it up on the "suicide" jack and spin the wheels to double check for wheel bearings etc. All quiet except for slightly "graunchy" noises at the final drive.
So, expected at sister in law's for Easter down in North Devon, but what to do? rang the SEAT garage again and got the same reply - basically no chance! They did suggest a couple of local garages, general workshops, which I, reluctantly, tried - don't like using unknown small garages - but they were the same, absolutely stowed out and couldn't help. Then I rang Croyde SEAT in North Devon, as they had been so helpful with the battery a couple of years ago. No problem said Chris. If you can get it here we'll look at it on the Tuesday after Easter when they reopen for business. So I thought about what to do. The route, which I've driven often and know very well is down the A303, a fast main road but with many possible stopping places. Then onto the M5 but I know none of that section is "smart" so there's a hard shoulder to stop on and then off at Tiverton and over to Barnstaple on the north Devon Link Road, again a normal main road with stopping possible if needed. Always risky if you break down in the wrong place but I decided to risk it and rely on my all singing all dancing Green Flag cover if it really came down to it. Anyway the noise got steadily noisier but not so bad it sounded as if gear teeth were actually trying to jump out of the box! I drove quite slowly and gently, spending quite a lot of time cruising along at around 50 mph behind the large commercials - that way I wasn't actually holding anyone up. By the time we finally made it to Barnstaple there was a definite "air raid siren" quality to the noise. It's quite a few miles further on to Croyde and it was quite late so we decided to try to get to sister in law's abode in the hills outside Barnstaple which meant going up some quite steep hills which worried me. Strangely - or not - the box was much less noisy when pulling hard up the hills? I suppose the backlash in everything was being taken up with the load? Anyway we made it.
Next day, the Saturday before Easter, I rang Chris at the garage and he asked if I thought it would drive there? Only one way to find out, and by now I knew the box was "toast", so I drove it there, mostly down hill and on the flat, and left it with them. By lunchtime on the following Tuesday he'd rung to say they'd road tested the car and drained the transmission oil (which looked like it was full of "glitter"). They didn't consider the box to be repairable and a new box was needed and what would I like him to do. The rest is, as they say, history!
If I'd been at home I'd have pulled the box as soon as the louder noise became evident and might (but might not) have got away with rebuilding the final drive. However I know from past experience, once a box starts to run bearings like this - I'm assuming it was bearings, probably crown wheel from the nature of the noise - then little bits of metal (glitter) find themselves all round the other bearings, embed themselves in synchro rings, etc, etc and come back to "bite" you later so you really need to completely strip the transaxle, thoroughly clean everything, check everything and rebuild replacing all parts that show any signs of damage or wear. Now a days with labour costs as high as they are, unless you're doing it yourself, a complete reconditioned exchange 'box is the best solution. The only way I might have saved money would have been if I bought a locally recon'd 'box and got someone to help me with the removal and refitting and I'm really not sure if this old body is up to it any more! Anyway, the genuine VAG exchange box has a 2 year warranty which I very much doubt an indy reconditioning shop would give and I'll be selling the car before the 2 years is up. So it's all been a bit expensive but probably the best option considering the circumstances.
