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Lost Third Gear in 5MT

Nyulak

Nyulak

Ready to race!
Location
SheffVill, OH
Bad news today, folks. While commuting to work, my third gear started to make a gravelly noise while in gear. When I started to merge into the highway using third, a heard a loud crunch and felt a jerk in the car. Poof, no more third gear. I was able to continue in fifth, but ultimately stopped at the VW dealership for diagnosis.

At the time I was APR Stage 2 with DP. I believe that the transmission may not have been up to the task of handling all the torque, but I won't discount my spirited driving habits in its contribution to wear and tear.

Instead of having the car repaired, I elected to trade it on another car, but not a new TSI, so I will be leaving the ranks of 1.8 owners. I won't be going far as I just bought a 2017 GTI Sport with DSG! Every cloud has a silver lining! :D
 
MonkeyMD

MonkeyMD

Autocross Champion
I guess we have found the limits of the stock transmission and it's not very high.

Saw a very nice night blue gti sport when I took mine in for service. Anyone have a jb4 I can borrow for a couple weeks to stack tune. :D
 
Nyulak

Nyulak

Ready to race!
Location
SheffVill, OH
- I had just over 61000 miles.
- Stock GTI is slower, but that will change in about three weeks.:D

I can say that I'm not impressed with the Potenza Grand Touring tires, RE97 I think, on the car. Will probably do more spinning starts to wear them down sooner. I do like the DSG when it's in Sport, but you can tell fuel economy was a priority when in Drive. I will be getting an ECU and TCU tune mid-May. I am having the DP removed from the TSI, which I will install the weekend before my tune appointment. I might jump straight to stage 2, but might stick with stage 1 to hold any additional transmission issues at bay.
 
Nyulak

Nyulak

Ready to race!
Location
SheffVill, OH
- No information on what caused the failure, but even if it were simple, I would want more and it appears this transmission might be a roadblock.
- The DSG in the GTI can handle more torque. I will likely stick with stage 1, though.
- Heh, there she is under the knife.
- I am getting my brakes, down pipe, and RSB with end links returned. I also wanted to see if I could get the wheels swapped with the GTI's, since they are lighter, but they might not clear the PP brakes. If not, I can live with the GTI wheels. I don't anticipate installing the brakes, so I might post them for sale.
 
toledospeed

toledospeed

Go Kart Champion
Location
3rd rock
Sorry to hear this happened, but congrats on the new GTI Sport! How does a trade work in this case when the car is broken, tuned, and they need to swap out parts etc.? I imagine they wouldn't be able to give you much for it. Out of curiosity, I looked and an excellent condition trade in for a launch edition is less than $9,000 (kbb.com). I am guesssing they gave you 4-5k at most? After fixed, they can try to sell for 11k or so, but will they disclose it was/is tuned? Dealer must be mod friendly I am guessing?
 
MeltedSolid

MeltedSolid

Autocross Newbie
Location
San Francisco Bay Area
Car(s)
'15 Golf, e36 328i
Did you have an aftermarket clutch or was this on the stock clutch? Obviously this was an isolated incident, but it would be interesting if at least for you the clutch wasn't the weak point of the transmission. I hope this doesn't happen to me any time soon, but if it does I would try to see if I could fit a mk6 GTI transmission in there. That would be a very cool swap.
 
Nyulak

Nyulak

Ready to race!
Location
SheffVill, OH
- Thanks. I got a little over $8k for the trade and a We Owe to remove some parts, so it was actually a good offer. I did return all of the stock parts that I removed and weren't damaged. Seeing as it was on the lift yesterday, I might pop over during lunch to grab some of the parts. I don't know if the dealership will disclose anything. I believe all a dealership has to do is sell the car As-Is, but I couldn't say for sure. I know when I traded my broken 535xi last year, one of the techs at the Audi dealership bought it to repair himself, so he knew what he was getting.

- I had a Haus of Dub 5GTX clutch. The stock clutch slipped on me last year. I went with the 5GTX over the 5GT hoping an IS20 tune with its increased torque would have been released by APR. Seeing as nothing had been released tune wise and I didn't get a JB1/4, I probably should have went with the 5GT, as the pressure plate of the 5GTX would cause leg issues during heavy stop and go traffic. Otherwise, besides a lower take-up point, I had no complaints with the clutch.
 
toledospeed

toledospeed

Go Kart Champion
Location
3rd rock
Nyulak said:
- Thanks. I got a little over $8k for the trade and a We Owe to remove some parts, so it was actually a good offer. I did return all of the stock parts that I removed and weren't damaged. Seeing as it was on the lift yesterday, I might pop over during lunch to grab some of the parts. I don't know if the dealership will disclose anything. I believe all a dealership has to do is sell the car As-Is, but I couldn't say for sure. I know when I traded my broken 535xi last year, one of the techs at the Audi dealership bought it to repair himself, so he knew what he was getting.

- I had a Haus of Dub 5GTX clutch. The stock clutch slipped on me last year. I went with the 5GTX over the 5GT hoping an IS20 tune with its increased torque would have been released by APR. Seeing as nothing had been released tune wise and I didn't get a JB1/4, I probably should have went with the 5GT, as the pressure plate of the 5GTX would cause leg issues during heavy stop and go traffic. Otherwise, besides a lower take-up point, I had no complaints with the clutch.
Click to expand...

Wow, you did exceptionally well on the trade, especially since they have to wrench on the car to replace the stock parts. I'll have to let you negotiate my next trade, haha!

The upgraded clutch will surely defer the stress on down the line to the next weak point in the transmission. A worn clutch won't transfer the stress on down the line like a new beefier one. The stock clutch is actually saving your tranny to some extent. But, like Blade said, this could be a defect with the synchronizers and may not affect all cars.

When I was young, I used to beat the piss out my cars in the heat of the moment, so I know how it is LOL. For the guys with manuals, stories like this should be used as a word of caution and not "mine will break soon!". It will also be important to make sure that clutches, especially upgraded clutches, are adjusted properly to avoid unnecessary grinding (not to say the OP's was not). If the clutch doesn't always fully release all the time due to improper adjustment, this will hasten the demise of the synchros. And, even if the clutch is adjusted properly, driver error (missed shifts) or abuse (clutch-less shifting) can and will take it's toll over time.
 
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