Noisy gearbox

[HazelVR6 0]

I have just had my 96 VR6(60k) in garage with a noisy front wheel bearing. Whilst the gargage was spining the wheels by hand on the ramp they picked up a noise coming from the gearbox. They checked the oil and it was fine. The car drives well with the exception of the wheel bearing. Has anybody come across something similar?

[acf8181 0]

can you describe the noise?

if its kind of a whine on decelaration its most likely diff bearings....it'll get worse and worse till the box implodes.

i know a guy who does very good rebuilds at a very decent price....but you'd have to get the box sent to him in wales.

[VRmonster 1]

what kind of good price are we talking, and is he up for fitting quaife LSD's. cos my car is back on the road soon with about 240 ft/lb torque and it wont be long before i need a new box, lol.

[shail 0]

Mine has started to whine when taking my foot off the accelerator in 1st and 2nd. Is this normal? or terminal? I can't bear to spend anymore cash on it in teh coming months.

[acf8181 0]

vrmonster - i can't really discuss prices, as mine had very little work done to mine...but lets just say it'll be a lot less than anywhere else...plus he usually even paints the box so it looks brand new. the best way to contact him is via PM on cgti forum...his username is 'hotgolf', say i suggested him. he'll deffo fit an LSD or an ATB (atb is better by the way), and can give you advise on how to get a peloquin atb for the best price

shail - exactly the same as mine....though note that i got a different box rebuilt so don't know how much it'll cost to fix, but you're probably looking at a full rebuild. you coudl get a second hand box, but then you don't know of the condition of it...i bought one and it didn't work. if you're planning on keeping the car prob best to geta rebuild.

for anyone who is considering a rebuild, theres a few relatively inexpensive mods you can do...the o.e. box has the diff held together with pins, they very commonly go wrong and will take the whole box with it. you can uprate these for diff bolts, so it'll be much tougher. another mod is a lower final drive ratio, this will lower you gearing giving quicker accelaration...but comes at the cost of top end speed. the standard box will theoretically run out of revs at 165mph ish, not that you have the power to get there, where as the lower FD will hit the limiter at 140mph ish. so still plenty fast enough, but at cruising speeds your revs will be slighty higher, and thus you'll get slightly less mpg.

[badboyV6 4]

Is the VR6 box completely different to the 16v unit?

[acf8181 0]

the casing is identical...they're both 02A, but the ratios are completely different AFAIK. same goes for the seat ibiza cupra 16v box, although that is cable clutch.

[ Edited Thu Feb 10 2005, 02:05AM ]

[badboyV6 4]

So that means the VR suffers from the same weaknesses as the 16v box- ie dodgy synchro in second?

[HazelVR6 0]

Thanks for the response guys. I have had six different golfs now and all have suffered from some kind of gearbox problem. What should I do now, leave it and hope it doesn't implode or look to get it recon while it is intact.

acf8181 - the noise is apparantly a slight rough noise coming from the diff.

[acf8181 0]

badboy - i think ever single vw 'box can suffer from that if its had a rough user!

hazel - the thing is, if you drive it till it blows it'll turn the whole box into scrap. so you'll have to source a second hand one, with the inherent risks of that. as it is at the mo you can prob get your current rebuilt, the more you drive it the more damage it can potentially do.

[VRmonster 1]

i can comment on the damage a loose diff pin can do, it blew a hole in the lower section of my box about the size of my fist, and yes the box was definately scrap, it even bit into my synchromesh. grrr.id recomend you get a rebuild or start sourcing a new box asap, as if it goes you will be lost without a gearbox.

thanks for the contact andrew, ill certainly look him up when i get the box done.