Audi a3 1.9tdi gearbox crunch

I cannot see how water would have caused any crunching, as its sealed. However the 8L isn't getting any younger and I would advise anyone with 80k+ miles on their car to change gbox oil. Simple enough, there is a drain hole on the front of the box below the starter motor (may need m8 12pt spline or something funky like that). There are plenty of guides on here do a search.

New fluid will certainly smooth out your gearbox, whether it cures crunches is another story. Possible that the syncro is shot.

I dropped and split my gearbox last year, to replace the reverse / 1st / 3rd input shaft, took 20hours (start to finish) having never done it before, and that was on a quattro. Doing the job on a FWD box could be done in half the time. The parts for the internals for these box's are pretty reasonable, you could replace all input shafts with syncro's for <£300 the only problem then is you may as well do clutch, pressure plate, DMF and release bearing while your at it which is the best part of 1k.

Depends how long you are going to keep the car tbh. If it is 6+ years, i would do a proper job, if it is for less, you could prob pick up a replacement box from a breakers for < £200 delivered and be done with it.

Good luck :icon_thumright:

Sounds like the syncro is going, but like Kave says, could try a breaker for a box. The only thing in the back of my mind would be that input shaft, I hope I never have to remove my Quattro box again to replace that

laney said:

Could it possibly be wires from synchro? Am I right in thinking the gear change is manual on the lever but there plugs coming off it. Is a gearbox an easier enough job bearing in mind I'm a plumber not grease monkey?

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Sorry mate, think you got the wrong end of the.... gearstick.

The syncros are brass rings inside the box, which allow the different speeds of different sized gears to mate smoothly.

I think you are referring to the the linkage mechanism, which on your the 8L chassis will be cable change, which connects your gear stick the the selectors on the gearbox itself.

Taking the box off your FWD chassis to repair / replace should be straight forward.

If you intend to split the gearbox and fix, drain the oil out now. (However replacing the syncros on the basis you don't know what one is - could be tricky, no offence.).

You will need spline tools to remove the inner cv joint from each side of the box, which allows you to move the driveshafts out of the way.

Disconnect the gear linkage from the box.

Remove the dogbone mount - the one which mounts the underside of the gearbox to the front subframe chassis.

Remove the starter motor and put to one side.

Remove all the bolts which hold the box to the engine block.

Jiggle the gearbox off the block, and lower on a jack.

At a minimum you will need a full set of spanners, sockets, axel stands and two jacks.

Its not difficult, just time consuming. Take your time and allow for not having it back on the road on the Monday, nothing worse than encountering a problem and pulling your hair out trying to solve it trying to rush it to get it back on the road.

Any questions just ask.

Geoff-R said:

Sounds like the syncro is going, but like Kave says, could try a breaker for a box. The only thing in the back of my mind would be that input shaft, I hope I never have to remove my Quattro box again to replace that

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Haha agreed! Another sucker I convinced it was a good idea Glad to hear you got it sorted in the end Geoff.