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TDi 130 Issue

hartless

Guest
Hi everyone

Just thought I'd post up a story of a recent problem I had with my Ibiza, a Mk4 130 tdi - an 03 plate thats done about 96,000 miles now.

Very inconspicuous start to it all, I was pulling out of a T junction and accelerating away into second and the engine stalled. Thinking I was just being a muppet, I went to start the engine again and found it wouldnt turn over at all. No warning lights on the dash, plenty of coolant/fluids etc and no big 'bang' or anything so it was a bit of a head scratcher.

The RAC guy took one look and confirmed that its wasnt going anywhere, as the engine would only make a quarter of a revolution or so before stopping. After a tow the guys at the garage first suspected the timing belt had gone / jumped, then a failed valve. Having a good look around and taking the head off the engine proved both of these to be incorrect.

It turned out in the end that the selector fork for 1st/2nd had broken off (a failed rivet apparently) and fallen into the gearbox, fouling a couple of gears and preventing the engine turning over. To resolve this required a full strip and rebuild of the gearbox. Needless to say this was a pretty expensive one!

The interesting thing was that after getting it back my mechanic has said that he's seen it on a few VAG cars with this type of gearbox, particularly the more powerful ones (which to be fair this Ibiza isn't, compared with, for example, Audi S3s etc). I dont exactly drive this car to the max so I'm a little surprised that it happened really, especially on one of the components which is supposed to be one of the rock solid German bits!

I was wondering if anyone (especially those with remaps etc) has seen this problem before?
 

Mak1

Guest
Only ever seen that one on the old 02M (1M Cupra days) and then not very often. Not heard of it on Ibiza though (same box, but different).
 

Bondiblu

Enthusiast
Mar 18, 2007
1,648
1
Cheshire
I have heard of this before, and apparently it is fairly common. Spoke to a techy a while ago, and he said he had done loads of them.
 

Nath.

The Gentlemans Express
Jan 1, 2006
8,620
16
EASTLEIGH, HAMPSHIRE
It wouldn't turn over a full turn and they stripped the head off before they thought to turn it over with the clutch pressed in :think: Bloody clever guys then.
 

hartless

Guest
It wouldn't turn over a full turn and they stripped the head off before they thought to turn it over with the clutch pressed in :think: Bloody clever guys then.

Yeah thats a fair point. I had thought that afterwards but at the time it did feel prettty much locked solid so we were convinced it had dropped a valve or something. One to try next time, hopefully there won't be a next time though!

On a positive note the 'box feels much sweeter now post rebuild, a lot more precise. Not sure if its worth going through all that hassle for though!