Beat the credit crunch
Q There's a nasty crunching noise when I change up or down into second gear on my 200,000 mile Golf VR6 4-motion. The 'box offers no resistance to going into gear, whether it's ready for it or not. I assume the second gear synchromesh ring is worn out, which
I believe is a small component. Garages have quoted around £2000 to fix it by fitting a recon gearbox. This seems a lot of money for just one tiny part. What do you think?
Mick Fellows, Belper
Nigel says
AThe gearbox is difficult to remove on these cars.
The garage will have to remove driveshafts, gearchange and clutch hydraulics, plus the large engine makes the job awkward. The transfer drive to the rear axle propeller shaft also has to be removed. This adds up to a great deal of labour. In addition, the garage will probably want to use a new clutch kit and clutch slave cylinder-release bearing assembly (which lives inside the bellhousing on these cars). This avoids the possible failure of these components within the notional guarantee period of the repair. In terms of repair or replace, if you insisted on a repair, the garage would probably send the 'box to a specialist. It would be pointless to strip a gearbox down to its last nut and bolt without investing in expensive new bearings, seals, etc – the labour cost is almost exactly the same, but the trouble is, this work quickly tots up to four figures. An offthe-shelf reconditioned unit may be cheaper. A good secondhand box is not so expensive, but risky: what other problems might be gestating inside it?
Unless you fancy doing the job yourself, we'd suggest a much cheaper solution: extra mechanical sympathy. Match the revs to the gear before trying to engage it. Allow them to fall on the up-change; press the throttle a little bit on the downchange. Double declutch, in other words – release the pedal briefly between gears while matching the revs. It is a difficult technique to learn on a good gearbox, but a ropey one gives instant feedback when you get it wrong, so you'll soon master it.