1st gear problems

[pandaman]

Recently had trouble with 1st gear. Sometimes it's hard to put it into 1st and a few times it's actually got stuck in 1st gear and required a worryingly large  amount of force to get it out, once on a roundabout too.(that was fun)

After some googling turns out early 02q boxes are.prone to this problem, it could be solved by adding a shim or by the sounds of it a new box might be in order.

On my interwebbing travels I saw that @Pudding had similar problems and ended up with a 2011 TSI Scirocco gearbox with a custom shim. Found one on eBay for £300ish with something like 48k on the clock supposedly.

Will any 02q box fit? Are there ones that are better than others? Any to avoid? And any other things I should be doing whilst the box is off and easy to access??

Cheers

 

[pandaman]

More searching led to this post by pudding a couple years ago.

https://www.mk5golfgti.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,126407.0.html

Seems to answer my questions, any other advice appreciated though!

[pudding]

Yeah exactly the same issue I had, especially getting it out of first when rolling in traffic. Super annoying.  It was always fine when cold though, just got progressively worse the hotter it got.

Simply swapping over to the MK6 gearbox solved everything and it's been sweet as a nut ever since    My old MK5 gearbox wasn't utterly shagged or anything. No excessive shaft play etc, I guess it was just super tired at 150 odd K miles.

Any 2.0 petrol turbo box will fit, from the 2009 to 2013 era....so basically Golf 6 GTI, Scirocco TSI etc.

[breeze]

Be a bit careful with advertised mileages for gearboxes.

If they give a VIN/Reg to check mileage that is a good start, sometimes it is pretty obvious (like if the seller is on eBay only selling parts from a 2011 Scirocco, including clocks at 48k, your box advertised at 48k might be genuine). Just don’t trust the advert and do some research. Still a bit of a gamble, but hopefully can reduce risk.

[pudding]

True, but you can spot a VW gearbox casing that has 150K miles worth of wear and tear on it vs a 48K one.   Breakers are too lazy to deceive people like that.

[pandaman]

Thanks guys, did a bit more driving over the weekend, more than my 25 min commute. Got stuck in 1st a few times again. I'll keep looking for an appropriate doner.

[pudding]

You want chilli sauce with that? 

[pandaman]

I've had a lot of trouble finding a low mileage box where the seller was willing to give proof of the mileage. One said "due to data protection we can not give you the registration" so I asked for the VIN and they never replied.

But I went looking further than eBay and found a website called proxyparts. I found a 2011 Scirocco KZS gearbox that has only done 44,000 km, (about 28K miles) but it is in Holland.

I was a bit dubious at first but reading the page a few times it turns out the Netherlands have a standard for breaking vehicles called KZD or ‘kwaliteitszorg demontage’ which translates to ‘quality assurance disassembly’

So i guess it means the mileage must be fairly accurate as they have a procedure and classification system, this gearbox being ‘B1 - tested for operation
from 35,000 km to 100,000 km’ so i feel more confident buying from here than some average joe on ebay here in the UK.

Total cost including shipping was € 734,98 so £646. Not too bad considering people in the UK were selling boxes close to £500 with 80-100k miles on the clock.
 
Just need to book it in for the work and while the box is off i guess it would make sense to do the clutch and I will also be getting a new cambelt as its definitely due as i hit 115K miles this week.

[pudding]

Bloody ell they've gone up in price. 

I would trust a dutchman over an Englishman any day of the week 

Yeah it's definitely wise to sling a new LUK clutch in whilst it's apart.  Avoid SACHs. I've had too many issues with patchy quality from them over the years.

Play the DMF by ear on the day because OEM ones are long lasting if you have proper human feet and not hooves that stamp on pedals, but its your call.  The S3 LUK one in the aftermarket (AKS Tuning sell them) are stronger than regular GTI ones.