2016 GTI Manual Drivetrain issue, need help troublshooting

[Ital]

Hi All,
I have a 2016 GTI with about 46k miles. The car is tune with stage II APR with southbend stage 3 endurance clutch since the car had 3k miles.
I was driving on the highway, sixth gear speeding up at around 80 MPH, all of the sudden the car just starts to Rev freely, like something snapped, the car felt in neutral, not in gear.
I just put the car in nutral and let it coast a mile and pull over somewhere safe. I then shut the car off and start the car.
I get no check engine light, no leaks, everything seems fine the car starts and runs fine. I then try to put it in first and start releasing the clutch slowly, at this point i start to hear a grinding noise, similar to when you try to start the car and it is already running, or when you miss a gear and it grinds.. obliviously I do not try this again and I had it towed to an indy shop i trust.

I called the shop up as the car was getting towed, and based on what I told them they think it could be the axle.

What do you guys think? I hope it is nothing expensive, I did call the dealer too and they said they would need to take the clutch out... so I opted to take it to my indy shop instead...

If it is the axle, should I upgrade them, what are my options?

Thank you

 

[Diggs24]

I don't think upgraded axles exist but it sounds like the issue to me.

 

[Ital]

if it is an axle, I wonder if VW would cover that under the drivetrain warranty even though I am tunned.

 

[Diggs24]

Certainly worth a try.

 

[JerseyDrew77]

You can try but I doubt it and I haven't seen any upgraded axles for this platform.

 

[Ital]

so the Indy took a look and it is not the axle, still not sure what it is yet, he will know better later tonight. He thinks it is not the clutch.

 

[MeltedSolid]

Could be broken diff or final drive, or it could be broken input shaft I guess? I've never heard of the 6mt breaking on stage 2 power levels, I think it's even rare on stage 3+ power levels... Well, worst case scenario a replacement transmission is $500-1000 in almost new condition.

 

[SomeAircraftMech]

Hi All,
I have a 2016 GTI with about 46k miles. The car is tune with stage II APR with southbend stage 3 endurance clutch since the car had 3k miles.
I was driving on the highway, sixth gear speeding up at around 80 MPH, all of the sudden the car just starts to Rev freely, like something snapped, the car felt in neutral, not in gear.
I just put the car in nutral and let it coast a mile and pull over somewhere safe. I then shut the car off and start the car.
I get no check engine light, no leaks, everything seems fine the car starts and runs fine. I then try to put it in first and start releasing the clutch slowly, at this point i start to hear a grinding noise, similar to when you try to start the car and it is already running, or when you miss a gear and it grinds.. obliviously I do not try this again and I had it towed to an indy shop i trust.

I called the shop up as the car was getting towed, and based on what I told them they think it could be the axle.

What do you guys think? I hope it is nothing expensive, I did call the dealer too and they said they would need to take the clutch out... so I opted to take it to my indy shop instead...

If it is the axle, should I upgrade them, what are my options?

Thank you

i think IE makes an axle, and idk why they would pull the clutch... the first i would check was the shifter cable, second the axles followed by pulling the axle cups and checking them they see if they were sheered or possibly stripped a bit. And the main spline on the trans can be seen and inspected by just dropping the trans.

 

[Ital]

i am told it is not the axle, now they think it might be the clutch, so now I need to look for a new one... if it is just very odd it would fail all of the sudden like that, as if something just gave up all of the sudden. It had no signs of any issues. Either way they wont know for sure until they start to take it apart..

If it is the clutch I might go back to dual mass flywheel....

 

[SomeAircraftMech]

i am told it is not the axle, now they think it might be the clutch, so now I need to look for a new one... if it is just very odd it would fail all of the sudden like that, as if something just gave up all of the sudden. It had no signs of any issues. Either way they wont know for sure until they start to take it apart..

If it is the clutch I might go back to dual mass flywheel....

if your hearing a grinding noise when trying to engage the gear personally i wouldnt think it would be the actual clutch unless maybe it completely imploded itself, maybe the throwout bearing took a crap and isnt fully engaging the pressure plate springs causing the clutch not to fully disengage but that wouldnt explain it letting go out of nowhere in gear. now im really curious haha.

 

[Ital]

I went ahead and ordered a new clutch, I called fcp euro as they are local to me and they said I could return it if not used and I can drop it off there.
They think it could be a failed slave cylinder as they heard of a couple of cars with similar symptoms. We will find out for sure in a couple of days...
if a new clutch is needed I will try the sachs performance clutch with the dual mass flywheel this time around, but hopefully it is just the slave cylinder
ill have them replace the crankshaft seal while at it.

Thank you

 

[jimlloyd40]

Are you sure that it didn't just pop out of gear?

 

[GTI Jake]

Think back really hard because your original discrepancy doesn’t add up.

After restarting the car on the side of the road did it grind while attempting to engage first gear, or once it was in first gear and you attempted to let the clutch back out to move the car?

 

[jimlloyd40]

Think back really hard because your original discrepancy doesn’t add up.

After restarting the car on the side of the road did it grind while attempting to engage first gear, or once it was in first gear and you attempted to let the clutch back out to move the car?

I was wondering that also and if he had the clutch fully depressed and the RPM's back to idle speed.

 

[Ital]

Think back really hard because your original discrepancy doesn’t add up.

After restarting the car on the side of the road did it grind while attempting to engage first gear, or once it was in first gear and you attempted to let the clutch back out to move the car?

I pressed the clutch, put it into first and as I tried to let the clutch out the car would start to move just a bit but then it would stop and make the grinding noise, similar noise you would hear if you missed a gear or let the clutch to soon while trying to change gears