[Guest]

Hi there, new member...first time posting.

I own a 2002 B5.5 Passat Estate. 130 PD (AWX) TDI engine. 5 speed manual. 191K miles.

Clutch was on its way out the other week (slipping badly). I put it into a local independant garage I've used before. Got car back with new clutch and flywheel fitted.

Noticed almost straight away gears were grinding/crunching going from 1st into 2nd...and sometimes from 2nd into 3rd.

Put it back into same garage the next day and they took a look at it. Suddenly I hear back, "oh...yeah your gearbox is humped. It will need reconditioned."

Now I have owned the car for 3 years now and I've put the last 42K miles on it. I've ALWAYS done my gearchanges nice and smoothly, gone easy on my clutch and never crunched my gears. Furthermore, I had the gear oil changed at 150K miles just after I got it (and the mechanic at the time said the old stuff that came out was clean, so it had probably been done not too long before this and wasn't the original factory gear oil). Gear changes were always flawless...no grinding, no struggling to get it into gear, etc.

Is there any proper mechanical reason why my car would be doing this? Or has the (young, fairly inexperienced) mechanic (who was left in charge while his boss was on holiday) that changed my clutch and flywheel messed up somewhere?

When I first called to let him know it was grinding when changing, he suggested it was possibly the gear shifter linkage that he hadn't adjusted properly...then when he called me after looking at it to tell me the gearbox was, "humped," he then said he was pretty sure it was the syncho rings that were damaged.

Now that his boss has spoken to him before he gets back on Monday, the situation is that they've sent my gearbox to get reconditioned. If they're at fault, he will pay for it...if the mob that do the recon say it's my fault, I'll be left footing the bill.

So did he screw up the clutch/flywheel job, or is there a good, honest mechanical reason for this to have suddenly and coincidentally happened now? Your thoughts, ladies and gentlemen please.

 

[Keithuk]

Hi there, new member...first time posting.

First posts normally go in introductions else you could get a free fix and we never see you again!!!

Forum Rules and Guidelines

Who's flywheel and clutch did they fit? If it didn't grind before you took it in for this job and it grinds afterwards I would bleed the hydraulic clutch first that's the cheapest thing, or get the garage to do this if you trust them.

Any problems search TDI Wiki as that covers write ups and forum posts.

 

[Guest]

Definitely sounds like a clutch adjustment issue to me.

 

[Guest]

Update:

Have just picked it up this afternoon. Since I don't really know about these things to argue too much about the rights or wrongs of it all (ie. potential mistakes made fitting/adjusting new clutch), garage have let me have it back after doing this:

*owner/experienced mechanic has changed the gearbox oil with some new fully-synthetic gearoil (gears were crunching after new clutch was fitted, and with the resulting damage, it obviously got dirty and there were "bits" in it).
*I've been told by him that the gears would have been worn by this mileage anyway, that "its not grinding now...except maybe on hills sometimes" and to watch my driving style and just live with it.

*I was reminded that I wasn't charged for labour or for the fresh oil for the gearbox (read that as "hey...we didnt even have to do that for ya!"), but seeing as they "humped" the gearbox, I thought this was they very least they could do.

*told "see how you get on with that...and if its too bad, come back in a few weeks and it will have to be refurbed properly and it will cost you 400-600 quid."

To be honest, Ive been at the end of my tether with this car anyway the past few months now, particularly with a limp mode issue that wont go away even after paying garage a fair bit to sort it. If I had a crystal ball telling me back in January that it would have ended up costing me this much, Idve just punted it on or scrapped it, but Ive sank a good bit of cash into keeping it on the road. I honestly dont know what to do with it if gearbox goes tits up now.

Sorry for rant,

Fed up n tired.

 

[Guest]

If same garage did trans work as did the limp mode diagnosis, then the shop is your issue, not the car.

Some guys just don't know what they're doing. I hate to spew negativity, but I've talked to some "career" mechanics (55+ year old guys, who have been wrenching their whole lives) and they often can't even understand my question well enough to give a coherent answer. Most of them start out nice, but get feisty and loud when you start poking around with your questions.
I remember one time, I was 16 years old, and the A/T went out in my 1994 Nissan D21 (AKA Hardbody, Navara, etc). In my nativity, I called a transmission shop with the question of "is it possible to swap it over to a M/T?" The owner got on the phone and told me "Not possible. I've seen guys try, but it's always some sort of awful Frankenstein mess and it just never works out properly". The conversation was more than a 10-second-long 'go away kid'. We spent ~5 mins on the phone and he gave me several reasons from "an automatic-equipped engine is different than a manual-equipped engine", "the frame of the truck is completely different" and other complete nonsense. 20 years in business!

What a clown!

It's tough sometimes. A lot of guys can turn a wrench and follow A, B, C directions, but when upper-level thought and understanding is required, they just blame it on the customer and say the part is faulty. Replace it!

In my short, but extremely frustrating (believe me! I'm in the same boat as you. Boy, oh boy do those post-scandal TDIs seem tempting!) experience with my 2000 Golf, I've found these cars require a lot of knowledge and experience. They are quite different than a regular car, and especially due to being diesel. It requires a completely different diagnosis thought process that I did not have prior to owning this car.

 

[Passat_shed]

I was the original poster here. Gear changes stopped grinding shortly after this and I've never had any more issues with it nearly 40K miles later. Found this post online in response to someone that had the same problem after getting a new clutch on a different type of car with manual transmission and I think my problem may have been what guy is describing:

"What may have occurred is that the new clutch installed AND working as it should…is releasing the pressure plate ENTIRELY…as it is supposed to…your old clutch may not have been…this would enable the engine to still turn/spin the transmission shaft…and thusly assist the tranny in shifting from 2nd to 3rd gears by speed matching the engine rpm to a speed that the trans shaft needed to be spinning in order to make that 2nd to 3rd shift (if there was a bad synchro)…now that the input shaft of the trans is not in continuous motion between shifts…as it should NOT be…You are now putting the smooth shift task onto the Synchros in the tranny… The new clutch may have simply revealed an issue that was there without your knowledge…because it was masked by the failing old clutch…and its INABILITY to fully release…The guys here will know what I am talking about (the sharp ones anyway) This is a possibility…If you understand these mechanical type of things."

 

[UhOh]

Rule out clutch engagement. With engine off you should be able to use the clutch and readily shift through all gears w/o problem. If there's a problem here then it could be clutch (consdier throwout bearing here), clutch slave (got air introduced into it) and or linkage. If this is OK then...

Place the car in gear with clutch depressed (and making sure no obstacles around the car) start the engine. You should NOT feel any movement of the car. If you feel something then the clutch isn't fully disengaging. If things seem fine then, in gear, clutch depressed and engine running, rev the engine past 3k rpm. Again, the car should NOT move at all.

Above rules out clutch issues (for the most part- there's still a possibility of a bad clutch- yes, new clutches can come with defects, don't rule this out). Gear box is now a suspect...

That your gear box would all of a sudden crap out is a pretty low probability event. I'd suspect the fluid change. Perhaps the wrong fluid? What fluid was used? Maybe find a better fluid. I've NEVER ended up with worse shifting following a fluid change: the fluid I've used, however, has all been fairly well matched to the transmission/diff.

 

[Guest]

Cool. In that case, I'll get the next garage (who are German car specialists and very good at what they do apparently) to change the fluid. Thanks!