You little bar steward

[audiman]

This is it, it has caused me scared knuckles, long nights and i was forced to drive a Pug 205 1.1 for over a week!!!!!!!ops:

One crappy bearing had failed. Look at the inner track of the bearing. Can you see all the pitting? No wonder it was a bit noisy.

[Martynf]

Man that part had some balls to do this to you! How you managed to bear with a pug I don't know

[Lee]

Once the box is out is this bearing easy to replace, Tom? As you know mine is on its way out too so I might tackle it this summer when I change the clutch and flywheel.

Cheers, Lee

PS Cheers for setting up the toe-in. Its has much improved feel and grip now. The steering wheel is in the right position when dead ahead too.

[audiman]

The bearing is the last one to come out when you strip the box. Its a mare and you need special tools to do it. I dont have these so entrusted the job to a gearbox specialist.

HTH

[Lee]

Couple of questions:
How much was your rebuild by Gearchange? I guess you paid trade.
How much did they replace: synchros, bearings?
How long did the rebuild take?

Cheers

[audiman]

Cost was trade which is not for me to discuss here. They replaced all syncro's and all bearings and anything else which is worn. Depends how bad the box is, mine had a worn input shaft and they had to find a good s/h one for it as a new one was over £1k!!!!!

They will do it two ways, you drive the car to them and they take it out and rebuild etc. Or give them the box and they will sort it out. Either way it takes about 2 days unless they now have stock. If they need extras then it may take longer.

You never know until you take it apart!!

PS Glad the wheel was straight! I bet it drove loads better and felt a bit more stable.

[Lee]

Huge improvement, especially in the wet. Once I'd emptied the car I took her out for a run and it was superb. I think I need to renew my front bushes again and replace all of the rear end ones to tighten things up further.
I might consider that gearbox rebuild but I don't expect much change for a grand for a decent rebuild. Or am I being pessimistic? I know it depends how bad it is....it is only making a noise in first and gear selection is first rate.

[Greg_S]

im not surprised your gearbox is showing some wear. You have the side stepping the clutch perfected i reckon.

[Lee]

Its had just under 40k miles abuse in my hands and covered a total of 145k+ miles altogether. I'm surprised its lasted this long. I'll refrain from the traffic light derby for a while...people get miffed when left in the dust of a '1.9Tdi'.

[JariP]

Tom, what kind of noise and when (accelerating, rolling or...) was your gearbox making when that bearing was going out? I've got some whining noise coming out the gearbox/front diff, I'm trying to decide what to do about it and how soon.

[Lee]

Mine isn't 'whining'...it sounds more like 'grinding' and Tom heard it and suggested it was the same bearing as the one which failed on him.

[Stick Insect]

Tom, what kind of noise and when (accelerating, rolling or...) was your gearbox making when that bearing was going out? I've got some whining noise coming out the gearbox/front diff, I'm trying to decide what to do about it and how soon.

Jarip, the noise I think you are describing is what I have. The faster you go the louder the whine. It tone / frequency is related to road speed and not engine speed or gear. Tom's would change with engine speed I think.

It has been identified on mine as a worn output bearings on the front diff. my car has done 23k only! I was told it might be that a long time ago and Sienna ( Vagsport ) has recently suggested that as well.

David

[audiman]

Mine only makes a noise under accel. Lee's is failing in a similar way to mine. Damn those crap bearings

[JariP]

I'm kind of hoping it is the diff output bearings. Maybe whining isn't the right word to discribe it, but I can't think of any better english word for it. Mine makes the noise when rolling in gear, as soon as you go from rolling to accelarating the sound goes away or it is covered by the noise from the engine. It's been like that for while without getting any worse. But anyway, it propably is either the diff output or diff input/gearbox output bearings, both seem to be a common problem with audi 5 speed gearbox.