Haydn Vernals

Hi

I have a Audi A3 1600 Sport with a broken gearbox, apparently a hole
in the casing, has anybody any thoughts of how long a box should last
? It's been suggested that the hole is casued by something inside,
not damage from an external hit.

Cheers

Haydn

Hairy One Kenobi

"Haydn Vernals" <haydn1971@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:8154svkmbo0i2mmqh6p2sr5b11lb8ncpme@4ax.com...
> Hi
>
> I have a Audi A3 1600 Sport with a broken gearbox, apparently a hole
> in the casing, has anybody any thoughts of how long a box should last
> ? It's been suggested that the hole is casued by something inside,
> not damage from an external hit.

In this context, "forever".

Might need new gears every so often (they wear), but an explosive event is..
erm.. kinda rare.

I've only ever seen failure due to a lack of oil in the 'box, although it's
always /possible/ that something could break on its own with such violence.
Have you /seen/ how thick the average casing is..?

--

Hairy One Kenobi

Disclaimer: the opinions expressed in this opinion do not necessarily
reflect the opinions of the highly-opinionated person expressing the opinion
in the first place. So there!

R@L

"Haydn Vernals" <haydn1971@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:8154svkmbo0i2mmqh6p2sr5b11lb8ncpme@4ax.com...
> Hi
>
> I have a Audi A3 1600 Sport with a broken gearbox, apparently a hole
> in the casing, has anybody any thoughts of how long a box should last
> ? It's been suggested that the hole is casued by something inside,
> not damage from an external hit.
>
> Cheers
>
> Haydn

Since I see no replies, I'll tell give you the general picture.
Manual gearboxes -especially of German cars like Audis- should and do last
for a lifetime. Nearly 1 million kilometers without anyone touching it is an
exception but happens -this was an Audi 100 Avant of '89.

But happens. You can torture the gearbox yourself revving 6500 and
driving 200 Km/h and switching to second f.e.
Also there can be made a manufacturing fault which happens a lot in newer
cars and is the main cause of problems on Audis. The design of all parts is
very good but third parties can produce low quality sometimes.

If a hole is made from the inside or outside is hard to tell IMO. But if you
say so, a part(icle) must be missing in there.

Ronald

Pete

"R@L" <reply@usent.com> wrote in message
news:C%uwb.2971$M44.78468@zonnet-reader-1...
>
> "Haydn Vernals" <haydn1971@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:8154svkmbo0i2mmqh6p2sr5b11lb8ncpme@4ax.com...
> > Hi
> >
> > I have a Audi A3 1600 Sport with a broken gearbox, apparently a hole
> > in the casing, has anybody any thoughts of how long a box should last
> > ? It's been suggested that the hole is casued by something inside,
> > not damage from an external hit.
> >
> > Cheers
> >
> > Haydn
>
> Since I see no replies, I'll tell give you the general picture.
> Manual gearboxes -especially of German cars like Audis- should and do last
> for a lifetime. Nearly 1 million kilometers without anyone touching it is
an
> exception but happens -this was an Audi 100 Avant of '89.
>
> But happens. You can torture the gearbox yourself revving 6500 and
> driving 200 Km/h and switching to second f.e.
> Also there can be made a manufacturing fault which happens a lot in newer
> cars and is the main cause of problems on Audis. The design of all parts
is
> very good but third parties can produce low quality sometimes.
>
> If a hole is made from the inside or outside is hard to tell IMO. But if
you
> say so, a part(icle) must be missing in there.
>
> Ronald
>
Is the Audi A3 1600 a manual? All manual gearboxes i have ever known from
multiple makers can take a huge amount of abuse and but they do also wear.
Most problems relate to teeth on the synchromesh gears and the bearing
arrangements for components such as layshafts etc. Why an A3 has blown a
hole through its casing i hate to think of but i certainly would love to
know. Any pictures? Must have been something very catastrophic.

In the situation of the '89 100 Avant, i gather it is an automatic so will
have the the 087 series transaxle and we all know about that piece of
engineering brilliance.... I am currently rebuilding one of these messes
from a 1989 100 2.2 EE Sedan after the pinion transmission-end bearing
grenaded and the driver continued to use the car.!The pinion and crownwheel
chewed their teeth off . Eventually it wouldn't shift up out of 1st and i
found the centrifugal valves and weights off the smashed governor (which had
NO teeth) all the way back in the trans oil pan. The car had done
130,000miles. Take a look at:

http://members7.clubphoto.com/pete53...54/guest.phtml

nobody@everywhere.com

Had this same thing happen to my 85 Jetta, one month after the
warrenty ended. The dealer scratched his head and said he never saw
this happen before. I put a junkyard tranny in it and sold it.
Years later, I learned that it was caused by a clip falling off a
shaft. VW did a recall on it, but it was too late for me. Could it
be the same thing again?

On Mon, 24 Nov 2003 14:25:25 +0000, Haydn Vernals
<haydn1971@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

>Hi
>
>I have a Audi A3 1600 Sport with a broken gearbox, apparently a hole
>in the casing, has anybody any thoughts of how long a box should last
>? It's been suggested that the hole is casued by something inside,
>not damage from an external hit.
>
>Cheers
>
>Haydn

Don Borowski

I recall from the back of my mind the story of the self-machining gearboxes
in VWs of this era. IIRC, it was the gear for 5th speed that was pressed
onto the shaft. The axial force on it (due to the spiral cut gears) would
force it down the shaft whence it would start machining the gearbox case. I
believe the problem was solved with a circlip in a groove on the shaft.

Don Borowski

<nobody@everywhere.com> wrote in message
news:3fc4ae05.1727380642@news.east.***.net...
> Had this same thing happen to my 85 Jetta, one month after the
> warrenty ended. The dealer scratched his head and said he never saw
> this happen before. I put a junkyard tranny in it and sold it.
> Years later, I learned that it was caused by a clip falling off a
> shaft. VW did a recall on it, but it was too late for me. Could it
> be the same thing again?
>
> On Mon, 24 Nov 2003 14:25:25 +0000, Haydn Vernals
> <haydn1971@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>
> >Hi
> >
> >I have a Audi A3 1600 Sport with a broken gearbox, apparently a hole
> >in the casing, has anybody any thoughts of how long a box should last
> >? It's been suggested that the hole is casued by something inside,
> >not damage from an external hit.
> >
> >Cheers
> >
> >Haydn
>