Gearbox fault

Aluminium

Aluminium

A2OC Donor
My latest A2 TDI 75 Sport (with 60,000 fully historied miles) has developed a noise which I'd presumed was something in the engine bay, I thought perhaps a tensioner/idler had given up the ghost so….

Last week Tony (HotStuff) kindly offered to check over my A2 at his workshop, unfortunately (typically) the noise wasn't at all audible on the test drive.
Next-up was an inspection of the engine bay which showed everything to be in fine shape with nothing loose.
Up on the ramp Tony had an inkling that a loose exhaust rattle might be the issue but that theory was blown out as everything under the car was tight as drum.
From my description of the symptoms and the noise Tony said it had to be a gearbox fault . . .

Today I visited Stealth as they had a spare half-hour to check the A2, I'd explained the situation and Vince thought it had to be a bearing of some sort…
True to form the noise wasn't very vocal on the test drive so it went on the ramp for a visual check which came to nothing.
After a bit of head-scratching Vince climbed in the car and had his technician raise the ramp, as Vince went through the gears we could hear a loud gnashing noise which increased with each up-change.
Vince thinks a pinion bearing may be at fault, I can't quite remember exactly what he said but it'll need a strip-down to see precisely what's wrong.

So I'm looking at having the gearbox reconditioned unless I can find a mint original TDI 75 one (I don't know what the code is).
Vince did mention that there were other options such as the JDD gearbox but I'm loathe to modify the gearbox ratios for fear of reliability issues in years to come, as standard it's great on country lanes and around town, admittedly I do find fifth gear a bit short on the motorway.
 
Getting your hands on a replacement EWQ gearbox with low mileage and in good general condition is not an easy task, so I suggest you let Vince open your existing 'box and replace the dodgy bearing. If you're lucky, the bearing in need of replacement will be at the end of the gearbox that doesn't necessitate removing the shafts. :)

Cheers,

Tom
 
It's tempting but it'd cost far too much and I don't do enough motorway mileage to warrant the expense.... you really are a bad influence Tom!! :p
 
It's not really a mod that makes financial sense. You add it for the same reason you add Bose or leather seats: because you want it! :)
 
When Skipton did my 5th gear mod there was hardly any oil in the gearbox. He said this was typical situation when he did the mod and I recall other members highlighting this too. Might be the cause. I don't recall the oil every being checked on a service. Maybe they are sealed for life but in reality they aren't. Would it be worth doing an oil change to see if that helps?
 
Hi Paz

hhmmm?
My philosophy is to always try to attempt a repair that costs as little as possible and escalate till a solution is found. Many may say that this is a long winded route but only this week I managed to save another forum member over £500 in repair costs when an independent VAG "specialist" mis-diagnosed an EML issue.

Having said that, I'm not doubting what Vince has intimated is the problem but I would again, suggest to you to replace the gearbox oil before you commit to any further expense. It is well documented on this forum that many A2's, including mine, have been found to be short on gearbox oil. This is a check that Audi does not do during routine maintenance - I do.

When you visited me to inspect your car, you were hard pressed to replicate this noise so I would again suggest that it may not be too serious. Remember that when a car is "driven" on a ramp all sounds are amplified - you do not have the luxury of an insulated cabin. Additionally, the forces and load when the car is driven normally are very different to when the suspension and driveline are suspended.

Hope this helps

blue skies
tony
 
Just one question

If it is only occasional and is often hard to relocate, would that surely not indicate that the oil level could not possibly be the cause? After all that is the one constant in the equation. It is not changing yet the noise is?

Not doubting anyone, just wondering.

Steve B
 
Aluminium said:
Vince did mention that there were other options such as the JDD gearbox but I'm loathe to modify the gearbox ratios for fear of reliability issues in years to come, as standard it's great on country lanes and around town, admittedly I do find fifth gear a bit short on the motorway.
Click to expand...
There is going to be a JDD box at Stealth's next month ..... It will fit directly into an A2 with no modification whatsoever. It will have been stripped by Stealth and have been given a clean bill of health. It is low mileage. How do I know this? Because it's mine! I will leave my box with Vince, at Stealth Racing. P.M. me if you might have been interested in it .... Want to test drive my car with that box in it? I could do that ..... Leicester isn't too far away ....

David
 
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Birchall said:
Just one question

If it is only occasional and is often hard to relocate, would that surely not indicate that the oil level could not possibly be the cause? After all that is the one constant in the equation. It is not changing yet the noise is?

Not doubting anyone, just wondering.

Steve B
Click to expand...

But I couldn't agree more about eliminating the cheaper options first.
So a top up of oil is a very cheap way to eliminate one cause.

I suppose that if the oil is very low it might but be fully circulating and so missing out some important areas and then after sloshing around a bit it might reach those areas.
So it just might be low on oil. My fear would be if it is that low on oil has the damage already been done?

Steve B
 
hotstuff said:
Hi Paz

hhmmm?
My philosophy is to always try to attempt a repair that costs as little as possible and escalate till a solution is found. Many may say that this is a long winded route but only this week I managed to save another forum member over £500 in repair costs when an independent VAG "specialist" mis-diagnosed an EML issue.

Having said that, I'm not doubting what Vince has intimated is the problem but I would again, suggest to you to replace the gearbox oil before you commit to any further expense. It is well documented on this forum that many A2's, including mine, have been found to be short on gearbox oil. This is a check that Audi does not do during routine maintenance - I do.

When you visited me to inspect your car, you were hard pressed to replicate this noise so I would again suggest that it may not be too serious. Remember that when a car is "driven" on a ramp all sounds are amplified - you do not have the luxury of an insulated cabin. Additionally, the forces and load when the car is driven normally are very different to when the suspension and driveline are suspended.

Hope this helps

blue skies
tony
Click to expand...


Hey Tony, thanks for the sound advice, I know it makes sense to do the cheapest fix first but the noise is there most of the time now when driving around town so at a guess I'd say the gearbox is goosed already.
I'll be keeping the miles down next week until it goes to Stealth for the work but I'll ask them to change the oil first and test it.

David, thanks for the offer of the JDD gearbox but I'm sure I'll keep it standard . . . for now.

I've double-checked the service history and can't find anything relating to having the gearbox oil changed, it's possibly very low on oil but as Steve mentioned the damage has most likely already been done.
 
Hi Paz...its Neil,Robs brother in law....your noise is it similar to it not quite being in gear as this sounds very similar to mine??
 
Hey Neil how are you?

You'll need to check with Rob, he heard the noise when he did a VCDS check on my A2.
It doesn't sound like yours from that description, mine is a rattling noise, the speed of which sounds like a small gear or bearing.
 
I visited Stealth again yesterday, they've had my car for just over a week now and are struggling to find the root cause of the faulty gearbox conundrum - it's a tough one for Vince!

The gearbox was drained of oil (sufficient level), stripped down and checked for swarf (magnet inside 'box was spotless) and any irregularities (no visible faults).

So it had two new bearings and a clutch but upon reinstallation of the gearbox it made a considerable noise through the gears which when traced with a stethoscope through the lower engine bay lead to the 'box.
The 'box came out again and was checked for runout and play on all ratios, everything was well within spec'. The last thing they did was to take out a tamper-proof bearing, all the bearings that have been taken out thus far are the cheapest-option fixes, they're awaiting delivery from TPS for this last bearing...

Fortunately I still have the use of their Polo courtesy car.
 
Diff?

You could also ask over on the German forum, they've seen more gearbox issues. It's a BHC engine; which box?


- Bret
 
Hi Bret, I'll take a look later on the German A2 forum, will I need to register to view threads?

Timmus states the gearbox code as EWQ though I haven't checked to confirm this, I doubt he's wrong :)
 
I think Vince has fixed it!

The gearbox was rebuilt and a new clutch fitted but the rattling noise was still there so Vince started looking at the tandem pump and fuel lines.
Vince fitted a spare tandem pump from a 1.9 PD engine and it quelled the noise for a short time but it came back again, it was at this point he started looking at the fuel lines.

He'd worked out that the noise could be recreated at idle if the revs were raised slowly to 2000 RPM and then gently lowered by 100 RPM at a time, the rattle would appear at circa 1800 - 1300 RPM. If light pressure was put on the fuel line the noise would subside...

Robin was at Stealth one Saturday and even though his car (90 TDI) doesn't make the noise on the road it would do it at idle. What we noticed was that Robin's car had a slightly different fuel line with two small metal canisters in-line yet mine only had one. Vince checked a few other TDI cars and found that his courtesy Polo 1.4 TDI had more of these canisters fitted in-line. He thinks perhaps these canisters are some kind of baffle/dampener to regulate the fuel flow.

So we took a punt on a new fuel line today and it appears to have stopped the noise but has also made my A2 run a lot smoother, more economical and a good deal quicker too!

Fuel line part number: 8z0130308g

A big thumbs-up to the guys at Stealth for their hard work! :cool:
 
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A photo of the fuel line....
 

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Dave M said:
A photo of the fuel line....
Click to expand...
A bit of „digging an old thread” but did anyone had similar issue ?

As I am struggling with a rattle very similar to the one described here.

Does the fuel line with noise insulation fails or is it an updated design ?

I have a 2005 BHC engine …
 
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