No third gear

[Dom Knight]

Leaving the carpark Monday I changed up to third gear and there was a strange noise from the gearbox.
Letting up the clutch there was no third gear.
I can get all the other gears but the gearbox makes a strange graunching sound.
The clutch seems to work fine.
I am assuming the gearbox is broken and will either need a rebuild or an exchange.

 

[Dom Knight]

Can anyone tell me if the clutch and flywheel and slave cylinder should be changed whilst the gearbox is out ?
I know it would be a prime time to do it but would like to avoid more cost.
The car has done 97,000 miles and the garage said this would be a good time to do it, as it normally gets done at 140,000 miles and it would save having to do it later.
We only do about 12,000 a year.
I think I will have a reconditioned gearbox fitted but I would like the guys on here advice on the clutch.
I reckon on selling it in 2015

 

[mark_S3]

It'll be daft not to replace clutch, etc......

Clutches can go at any point. It all depends on how hard of a life it's had.

If it was my decision, I'll bed, borrow, steal or save up the cash and have the clutch replaced.

 

[VAG-Slag]

It'll be daft not to replace clutch, etc......

I beg to differ, although that is because I'd be doing the work my self and obviously wont have to pay labour charges... Any garage is likely to charge you at least 4 hours labour just to get the gearbox off and on again so with that in mind it may be worth it.

If you do get both the flywheel and clutch done at the same time it might be worth considering a single mass conversion as parts are cheaper and (arguable) you'll get some performance benefits... I assume the car in question is a A3 non quattro?

 

[newbster]

its a tricky one, as mentioned above "Clutches can go at any point. It all depends on how hard of a life it's had."
without having owned the car from new, its a bit of a crap shoot.

your mechanic would need to remove the pressure plate or flywheel to examine the clutch, by the time he does this you have already paid the labour to fit a new clutch.
you don't say what you car is , it may or may not have a DMF.

i would do the following

new release bearing (whcih will be the slave cylinder as well if 6 speed box)
new clutch
inspect flywheel whilst clutch is off and decide if its ok ( as no extra labour required to get to flywheel)
anyways, good luck, hope its gets sorted

m

 

[Dom Knight]

The car is an A3 TDi six speed box 2003.
I am considering the work now myself as the price the garage (back street) came back with is way beyond what we can afford.
He wants £760 + vat for the gearbox and the clutch and anything else would be extra but he said £1277 +vat fitted just the gearbox.
There were other things I wanted him to do like maybe the clutch, timing belt, service.
The end figure was just over £3000 which is out of my league.

I think he saw pound signs when he saw me.

Is it true that on the six speed gearbox you need to remove the sub frame for easy access ?
If I do the job myself is there any specialst tools I will need ?
What about gaskets ?
I was told that the car would have a double mass kit in it.

One garage said that they would not fit a double mass and only standard.

 

[newbster]

Hi
760 for a recon box and clutch seems reasonable, labour seems a bit steep. is this a vw/audi specalist? they should be able to give a better price for swappping it out.

is it a diy job? depends on how good you are at spannering and how much time you have

you will need all the usual tools for working on an a3, (spline headed drives,odd sized sockets, prayer mat to face towards germany 3 times a day and genuflect)
good set of jack stands
engine beam to support the engine from above when box has gone
some way of supporting the box from underneat and moving it, transmission jack or trolley jack with copious use of strapping
its heavy, i can juuust about lift it onto a bench, but i'm a seven stone weakling.

there are some good guides on teh web on how to get the box out, best one i saw was on the golf IV forum

do you have a decent work area, this is not a job i would like to do in the road.

no gaskets required,

dont forget to bench bleed the slave cylinder, it sits inside the bellhousing and can soemtime be dificult to bleed when fitted

dual mass flywheel/single mass flywheel smf is teh orignal item, big chunk of steel, not much to go wrong. dmf is the modern version, changes its inertia wrt to speed, lots of things to wear out inside it, and also f..g expensive.


m

 

[Dom Knight]

The 760 was for the gearbox alone the clutch was extra.
Well the update.
Mrs told me to take the car from that garage to another one....an even smaller back street diy fella her ex used to use.
He works at the college as the teacher of mechanics.
He just phoned me and said that I have to get him a gearbox and not to bother with the new clutch !!!
I dont think I have met one person yet that has not said that the clutch should not be changed because re mounting the slave cylinder to the new recon gearbox will be nearly impossible because it will weep and it's a gearbox removal job to stop the weep.
I dont know if this is true about the sllave cylinder but it does make me thinks twice about not changing the clutch to a dmf and just be done with it.
I just dont think it's worth cutting corners.