Gearbox or clutch issues

[flak monkey]

My 05 plate Leon FR TDi has an intermittent issue somewhere with the gearbox/clutch and I am wondering if anyone else has had similar problems... This has been ongoing for the past 3 months...the car has done 53k miles.

Occasionally when you dip the clutch the gearbox will crunch going into 1st or second. Obviously 1st at a standstill then second at around 10mph. The pedal is definately all the way to the floor. Once past second it seems fine. This only happens occasionally (around once a week/200miles but more in town driving as more use of the clutch). I am not loosing any fluid. Also sometimes if you come to a standstill in gear and dip the clutch it wont let you take it out of gear without a sharp tug.

This all says to me that the input shaft of the box is being dragged around by the clutch as its not fully disengaging. But it doesnt happen all the time and not losing fluid tends to say to me I dont have a dodgy master or slave cylinder.

Also I have started to notice it sounds like the diff is whining, you can hear it sometimes and not others, but it doesnt seem to matter what gear its in. That said I dont know if its something I have started noticing because of the other problems, or not...

Any ideas?

Cheers,
David

 

[james.l]

i had this problem on my ibiza, ended up replacing, syncro, balcon rings, and linkage, lenghty job but cured the issue.

 

[flak monkey]

After some reading I am going to try swapping the gearbox oil to the VW recommended spec. I dont know what it has in at the moment, previous owner may have changed it to the Redline stuff which I know is bad in cold weather.

I did about 200miles this weekend, all trouble free, but mostly long journeys. One long journey ended up with some city driving and gearbox was smooth as silk then. So it could be temp related....

So, off to VW/Audi this weekend to stock up on the manufacturers spec oil, 75w GL4 from memory, and see if that helps at all.

David

 

[Alexis27]

My gearbox was a bit notchy in the cold. Seems better when it's 5/6C.

 

[flak monkey]

They reckon it takes 25 miles for everything to warm up and most of my journeys are 17 miles so it could just be as simple as everything is so cold at the moment.

This only started happening when we had all the snow before xmas too, so it could be temp related.

I'll change the oil this weekend anyway as the cars done 50k miles, and I reckon thats enough to warrant a change alone. And I'll give the rest of the car a good going over while I am underneath.

 

[BRB]

I developed a clunky 1st to 2nd gear change during all the cold weather ....... got worse after a while .... then driving along and went to go into 3rd gear and my clutch pedal went to the floor .... my slave cylinder had burst ....
Had to get new clutch and slave cylinder replaced ..... hope this doesnt happen to u cause its a pricy fix.... but gear change and clutch feels great with new bits ....

 

[sockpuppet]

I have a 55 TDI FR and had this problem on and off for 50000 miles. At first it was very intermittent and gradually got worse. The biggest problem I had was that it was so intermittent that taking it to a garage was nearly always a waste of time as the clutch would be fine everytime they tried it.

I tried brake fluid change, bleeding the clutch and even a change of gearbox oil. These all improved the problem, but only for a very short time.

It finally got bad enough that 1st and reverse would stick most of the time and the bite point of the clutch could be in different places.

I took the car in yesterday and had the slave cylinder changed, the good news is the slave cylinder is quite cheap at about £35, the bad news is that the cylinder is inside the gear box which makes it a 5 hour job. I also had the DMF and clutch changed while the gearbox was off as there was no labour for this.
It seems to have resolved the problem, my clutch is now a lot lighter and so is my bank account :-(

 

[F4]

Hey Flak monkey I am having a similar kindda issue with my car having changing from the 2nd - 3rd geara notchy feeling, got worse in 3 weeks now. Its a 04 leon cupra r, did take it to the stealers they said it could be the gear box, was wondering if I could try to change the oil myself. Some pics of the gearbox and info would be nice. Thank you

 

[markgb]

Mines always notchy from 1st to 2nd, when cold.
When she's warmed up it's fine.