vw/seat/audi/skoda. - gearbox failure

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Fri 29 Jul 2011 11:42
vw/seat/audi/skoda. - gearbox failure - Paul G1pdc

good morning

A friend in the village has just had a total gearbox failure on a Skoda Octavia diesel at 35,000 miles. its a 2006 reg.

Is this common, when searched on the subject it seems turn of the century cars x reg to 02 reg. from these brands had a weak rivet that let go resulting in the box seizing then whacking a hole in the box casting and oil all over the place, and a £1500 bill from a main dealer, Of course theres now an industry selling recon boxes with uprated parts to prevent this.

Ours friends Octavia, have they just been unlucky as there car is a lot newer than ones I've read about....

Paul

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Fri 29 Jul 2011 23:48
vw/seat/audi/skoda. - gearbox failure - Avant

I'd say they've been unlucky: I don't think this is a common failure on VAG cars of this generation.

If they didn't buy the car new, it may have been previously owned by some incompetent who abused the gearbox.

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Sat 30 Jul 2011 09:45
vw/seat/audi/skoda. - gearbox failure - spacem_uk

I know when we were looking for a MK3 Golf for my wife I was warned to keep away from 1.6 automatics as they have the "rivet weakness" but there is an upgrade available to replace the rivets before the event.

Afterwards is a case of new gearbox, as many recon places want the old box with case intact to swap, although I have read of some success repairing the broken casing by welding.

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Sat 30 Jul 2011 09:48
vw/seat/audi/skoda. - gearbox failure - spacem_uk

This page goes into detail about the gearboxes:

www.volkswagenspares.com/page.php?page=Gearboxes

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Sat 30 Jul 2011 11:24
vw/seat/audi/skoda. - gearbox failure - oldroverboy

This page goes into detail about the gearboxes:

www.volkswagenspares.com/page.php?page=Gearboxes

Excellent and informative link!

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Sat 30 Jul 2011 13:03
vw/seat/audi/skoda. - gearbox failure - Roly93

A sheer fluke I'd say. I have never heard of any premature Audi/VW manual gearbox failure in recent years. I assume we are talking about manuals ?

Edited by Roly93 on 30/07/2011 at 13:07

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Sat 30 Jul 2011 18:51
vw/seat/audi/skoda. - gearbox failure - spacem_uk

It was the mention of £1500 and hole in the gearbox casing that made me think we were talking about automatic gearboxes.

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Sat 30 Jul 2011 22:43
vw/seat/audi/skoda. - gearbox failure - 659FBE

It's not a fluke - this is a fairly well known problem as the rebuilder's web page suggests. This is probably a product of the VAG bean counter division again...

Unfortunately you can't establish a precise preload when fixing components with a rivet, especially when the parts to be joined are hardened. Bolts can be wound up until they stretch. Without preload, torque cycling will loosen the crownwheel with devastating results.

There is one way to achieve a preload with rivets if you're clever. Brunel knew all about this - you put the rivets in red hot.

659.

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