Gearbox - Reliability issues

[Damien IE]

Hi,

Newbie and haven't yet found much on gearboxes and their unreliability.
Plenty of clutch problems for those who've modded and fettled their motors.

Had a year 200 1.4 Leon MI and only after acquiring it were we informed they all gave gearbox problems. mentioned when in with a local dealer and he looked under the front and said 'your alright' and all I can say he was judging by the amount of weepage down the front of the gearbox.

Was told the problem was fixed in 2003 models onwards.

That Leon went under a truck and was replaced by a 2003 Bora1.4 so I'm wondering if that will suffer.

My concern has increased because we also have a 1998 1.0 Arosa as the 2nd car and it has recently had to have its gearbox reconditioned due to it becoming noisy and sloppy (on/off throttle backlash) and vibey.
Dropped it to a gearbox specialist who said VW gearboxes are sh1te and they all give trouble. They said 1.0's the 5th gear dries up as not enough oil gets up to it.. Bearings in it were gone and they said the pinion / diff give trouble.

They said the 1.4 also give trouble due to some parts are riveted together instead of bolted.

I know how a gearbox works, its components and the clutch and diff and how they operate - all in thoery as I'm not familiar with the internals as I'm not a mechanic but I'd love to hear what the problem points are and the models to avoid.

I'm hoping and lusting to have a CupraR (225 wud be nice) but the diesels do also float my boat.

 

[Damien IE]

VAG gearboxes

anyone got anything on which gearboxes are prone to problems and which modesl to best avoid ?

 

[silver surfer]

arosa 's lupos suffer from bearing problems whining rattles etc golf /bora/leons etc 1.6/1.4 diff rivets failing and coming out of side of gearbox tdi 5/6speeds and 18t seam ok as long as not abused

 

[Damien IE]

thanks for that Silver Surfer

yep, bearings went in our little Arosa 1.0 with 65k on the clock
being a 1.0 its never had a lard life with my wife being the 2nd owner on it from around 10-15k. For the last few years though its been mine as a runabout to / from work across backroads (bumpy backroads) while my wife now drives a Bora 1.4 (previously a Leon 1.4) {side rant Leon was a much better drive than Bora as I feel the suspension in under damped for rebound & compression or else the spring preload is way too hard - rides better when loaded up}

we heard of the gearbox woes after we bought and as my wife is the main driver it gets an easy life so it shouldn't be under much stress but I'd eventually like a Cupra R petrol or Cupra diesel and the fact a gearbox specialist tells me the VAG gearboxes are sh1te puts me off as I don't fancy blowing gearboxes for fun if i get one

the gearbox specialist told us about the diff being riveted and cost to fix OUCH
he said earlier models had them bolted then they went riveted and now they are back to bolted !!!

glad to see 1.8 and 1.9 tdi's seem ok
i'll keep hunting for one so

 

[karlosR]

trust me the LCR gearbox is far from bulletproof as i've found out!

 

[turbo017]

the ibiza o2j box is not to bulletproof either s the diff comes through the box

 

[cupralite]

I'm convinced my gearbox is taken straight from a tractor. It's not broken yet though.