Gear Grind

[Chris_t]

Hi guys since last week I started noticing that my car is grinding from 1st-2nd and 2nd-3rd. Also I’ve noticed that I have a little bit less acceleration in the lower RPM range, just minimal. I’ve got Scfc and 5th ave to check out the problem but they report that there is no problem. Im just worried that I don’t want to be driving in heavy traffic and then find out the car wont go into any gear or something like that? Could this be a sign of worn clutch, contaminated clutch? Thanx

Btw its an 02 Gti 1.8t with 65km.

[T-Dubbs]

Re: Gear Grind

Hi guys since last week I started noticing that my car is grinding from 1st-2nd and 2nd-3rd. Also I’ve noticed that I have a little bit less acceleration in the lower RPM range, just minimal. I’ve got Scfc and 5th ave to check out the problem but they report that there is no problem. Im just worried that I don’t want to be driving in heavy traffic and then find out the car wont go into any gear or something like that? Could this be a sign of worn clutch, contaminated clutch? Thanx

Btw its an 02 Gti 1.8t with 65km.

from my understanding, its common for dubs to grind

[R_Ethug]

Re: Gear Grind

second gear grind was common with old syncros in high RPMs but some people still get it..

mine never has grinded.. is it doing it in high rpms or just all the time.. perhaps your clutch foot is a little slow than your hand?

have the dealer drive it the 'way' you do and then see if it grinds.

[Chris_t]

Re: Gear Grind

In lower rpm around 3k it grinds proably like 7 out of 10 times. In higher rpms the grinding decreases but its still there a little, and also in higher rpm the car seems to kick back a lot now, before it never did that. I regularly also drive my cusins 1.8t his is a 03, it never grinds in either low/high rpms. Also in higher rpm shifts his car dosent kick back as much as mine does.

Im also noticing a bit less acceleration in lower rpm or its just that im getting a paranoid about this whole issue.

Thanx

[NeonGTI]

Re: Gear Grind

Mine has been grinding big time 1-2 for more than half it's life. It happens 4500 rpm and up and I can almost replicate it 100%.

SCFC and Northland state that I am the first person they have heard of to have this problem. They also stated that I shouldn't be driving my GTI at those RPM.

Morons.

[R_Ethug]

Re: Gear Grind

shifting @ 5000 when the car can do 7200 and your not supposed to!!! somebody needs to get fired for telling you that! and i know glen your not that stupid LOL and you know about your car

[Khyron]

Re: Gear Grind

2nd gear grind is a known issue in many mk4s, and the repair is the replacement of the tranny, or at least a rebuild with new syncros. There's tons of threads on vortex about it and some people that managed to get it under warranty. Obviously dealers are not willing to shell out for new transmissions and will claim abuse as much as possible.

Edit: Also consider trying the syncromesh solution as it's been shown to reduce grind.

Khyron

[Billip]

Re: Gear Grind

I personally had my transmission rebuilt on my last GTI (which had a 5 speed tranny) by SCFC under warranty. They replaced the second gear and all the syncros. So them telling you they haven't heard of it is complete bullsh1t, as is their telling you not to shift above 4500rpm.

It is definitely a known issue.

[Chris_t]

Re: Gear Grind

Man this is driving me insane. Its getting worse now. I dont even feel safe taking the car too far from home anymore. Im scared it wont even go into gear at all. Shoulda listended to my folks when they told me not to buy a VW from past family member experiences. I still have about 1 month remaning on warrenty. I hope its something under warrenty. Then time to sell this damn thing.

my old car was a pos (acura integra) 92 5speed...owned it for 4 years, never did it grind or anything smooth as butter tranny.

sorry if im too hard on vw but i really loved this car and i wanted it for so long

[turbomeyers]

Re: Gear Grind

is the pedel really high?

[B5]

Re: Gear Grind

Man this is driving me insane. Its getting worse now. I dont even feel safe taking the car too far from home anymore. Im scared it wont even go into gear at all. Shoulda listended to my folks when they told me not to buy a VW from past family member experiences. I still have about 1 month remaning on warrenty. I hope its something under warrenty. Then time to sell this damn thing.

my old car was a pos (acura integra) 92 5speed...owned it for 4 years, never did it grind or anything smooth as butter tranny.

sorry if im too hard on vw but i really loved this car and i wanted it for so long

I think this is a typical response from the dealership. Another possible reason for them of not doing such major repair is VWOA might refuse to pay the dealership back after, due to the item is hard to proof. They(dealership) must get somebody to pay the to keep the shop going, so if the bill not pay by you then is the VWOA vice versa. I’m not saying it is right for SA to feed you some b.s,es. but what if they were trained to do that in the first palace.

I heard some owners got lucky when they file complain with the cold 1-800 number. In that case the dealership might be able to start to look into some options caused you are holding a complain file# and expect to be a long process. Or like everyone said, just replicate the problem with their tech sits in your car.

People will always say German cars are always over engineered(Do you see now how truthful this tale now?). Whenever they are telling you such and such RPM to shift, ask them for reference to the page number on shifting point in the owner’s manual. I think the new cars do have that info now. Haha.

You don’t need to call your Acura ‘crap’ to make some of us happy. Some of us know the problem and love to/proudly admit the problems with their cars. How can you change the people of thinking that way?

I currently own the last two VWs I'll ever own.

Got 2 new Japanese last year and ‘LOVE THEM’. As of today with zero problems.



Perhaps their golden years in history.
-Early history of the Germanic tribes (100 BC-300 AD)
-Migration Period and Franks (300-843)
-The Holy Roman Empire (843–1806)
-Restoration and revolution (1814–1871)
-German Empire (1871–1918)
-Weimar Republic (1919–1933)
-Third Reich (1933–1945)
-Division and reunification (1945–1990)

Which make it come down to:-
-Military experience
-German engineering
-Computer science
-Artificial intelligence

Do you still trust them??????

[NeonGTI]

Re: Gear Grind

Whoa there Nelly. That's a bit of a tangent.

I am considering the 'synchro solution' but I would rather the problem be FIXED.

Yesterday I just got around to having the Brullen downpipe that has been sitting in my garage for a year installed. Much fun!

Anyway, I can just see them using that against me for the tranny thing.

I just had my car at SCFC and asked that Dave look at the tranny problem, however they decided to not tell Dave I had my car in and assign it to some other dummy who said 'rev and shift so high not propper (sic) operating way'.

Die.

p.s. Will have dyno's of post downpipe love for Monday.

[Khyron]

Re: Gear Grind

Get documentation that you have reported the problem to VW in case it goes past warranty, and get lots of evidence from vortex etc. If you don't do your homework of course they're not going to roll over and give you a new tranny. And go back and make sure Dave sees the car.

That all said, as Top Gear says - the VW tranny doesn't like to be rushed. So you can't be at 6K and jam it down and be surprised if it makes a noise. If you do it a bit slower from 6K it shouldn't grind. And driving normal street driving it shouldn't at all, especially under 4K.

Khyron

[Chris_t]

Re: Gear Grind

is the pedel really high?

what do you mean by is the pedal really high?

[Chris_t]

Re: Gear Grind

I've got an appointment with 5th ave again this upcoming tuesday. It'll be the second time it goes there now for the same problem maybe they will do soemthing about it now.

Im also going to book an appointment with SCFC today hopefully i get can into there early then tuesday.

I apperciate all the replies