HELP !! Gearbox problem

[FRANK NITTI]

Today I was driving in 2nd then tried to change to 3rd and the gear lever wouldn't go in, then I tried another gear and it wouldn't go in either so I stopped by the lights and put hazards on. Then turned off the engine and put it into 1st while engine off, turned the key with the clutch down and felt the car trying to pull away - got away in 1st then tried to change to 2nd but no luck again. I believe it is not the master cylinder, nor the gear linkage, not the clutch but do you think I need a new gearbox (££££££££ !!) who is the cheapest in london? I know dialynx is good but who else? Thanx

[madpugger]

I would suspect the clutch has lost a rivet and it is jamming the pressure plate thus not letting the clutch disengage. if it is there is nothing for it but to remove the box and change the clutch It happened on my ABY and my 80Q!

Hope you get it fixed soon

[FRANK NITTI]

Thanx - made me feel like it may not be total gearbox change - got a quote for £2000 for new gearbox over the phone (dialynx) and local high performance mechanic said £1800 - really hope it's not the gearbox........!

[s2avant]

Sounds like the clutch has failed. I had this on mine a few years back. It was the spring in the pressure plate that snapped on mine.

Ben

[Lloyd]

Yep, your clutch has failed in one way or another.

I had exactly the same symptoms and it turned out to be the thrust bearing....

A £30 part for roughly a £600 overall garage job.

Replace the whole clutch whilst you're at it

[bazookachicken]

I had exactly the same problem the end of last year it was the clutch that had gone. Be prepared to dig deep though mine had lunched the flywheel aswell so when it went in I had:
New clutch,
New dual mass flywheel,
New slave and master cylinder.
And I had the bomb done at the same time cause it needed doing anyway.
It took nearly 3 weeks at a reputable Audi specialists as they had to order oem parts from germany and the first 2!! flywheels that came were broken and unusable.
Total bill was worse though £1244.14!!! all in including vat.
The clutch itself was only £180 the flywheel was the expensive part and came in at just over £500 including vat, factor in a few hours labour at around £40 plus the cost of the master and slave cylinders and it's an expensive game.
Granted you can take a bit off my bill for the cost of the bomb and an hours labour to fit it but even so...
It did feel like a different car when it came back though and my original clutch had lasted 140,000+ miles so I don't plan on having to do it again anytime soon

[FRANK NITTI]

thanx for all the helpful replies - the local high performance mechanic said it might be the mesh in the gearbox thats stopping it going into 3rd and 4th gear - anyone heard of this? Might be due to being driven hard by the previous owner..

[denniselbows]

as said by all the others it realy does sound like the clutch is not disengaging fully causing the plate to drag .that is why it is trying to drive with the clutch down and ingear also makes changing gear difficult. if it was gearbox related you would not get drive or try to drive with clutch down.

[Sonic]

Either way he would be able to check the clutch before taking the gearbox to pieces.

[ericd]

Can you push it through all the gears with the engine switched off ?, box failure is still pretty rare on these things, as suggested sound like R/bearing, but before anything else take a close look at the master cylinder + pushrod, as well as the slave,
and try to see if you can bleed it before going any further

HTH

[FRANK NITTI]

ta - jus going out to try all gears.....wish me luck...

[FRANK NITTI]

just tried and couldnt get into any gear with the engine off ! But then it started to respond and went into all 7 gears - then gave clutch a few pumps with engine off then did it with engine on - couldn't get into any gear with engine on
even trying reverse with engine on it was growling at me

[s2_bo]

Id echo what everyone else has said.

When the gearbox goes it normally lets you know about it beforehand. Just ask 4whelldrifter he had a little incident with his gearbox but when it did finally pop it made a bit more noise than what you have said above.

Hopefully its just the clutch.
If i were you id take the advice above and replace the parts mentioned. If you doing the work yourself then you dont have to buy all the bits in beforehand as you wont be on such a tight time schedule or clocking up ramp time. You can then therefore remove the gearbox and see what the actual course of failure is.

If the box has failed then by all means it might be repairable or at least you can get a refurbished one as an replacement, it shouldn't cost you £1800 though
And dont forget to look at clutch upgrades incase your planning on running more power in the future.


Either way, good luck and keep us posted