UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

does anyone know if its possible to have a gearbox taken apart and stregthened/ rebuilt so it is less likely to go?

just wondered if this is a possibility, rather than worrying my gearbox will go all the time

any ideas?

Would also be nice to know if the lupo gti 6 speed would fit

The Lupo 6 speed box won't fit the Polo unfortunately.

nickpolo wrote:does anyone know if its possible to have a gearbox taken apart and stregthened/ rebuilt so it is less likely to go?

just wondered if this is a possibility, rather than worrying my gearbox will go all the time

any ideas?

Would be very difficult based on the fact that the gearboxe has a major design flaw, all that a gearbox specialist can do is to put the gearbox back together with the parts that VW has provided ......you are just going to have to learn to live with a nice little car that has a cr*p gearbox......

so what is the flaw? i know a lot of people have problems with them etc, but what is the actual problem with them?

Must surely be that certain internal components arnt made of strong enough material OR not made chunky enough to take the abuse.

Maybe an engineering firm could make stronger components. But your probably restricted by the design of the box.

Probably why VW dont want to know, because they know it would take a whole new design of gearbox and that would cost too much to produce.

Producing a new stronger gearbox would be admitting there is a major fault with the originals (meaning they would HAVE to be done under a recall free of charge).

Your far better off speaking to someone that actually repairs the gearboxes as you wont know if anything can be done until then.

VW were well aware of the problem with the 5 speed box it simply can't take the power of the 1.6 GTI or even the 1.4 16v from the Mk4 to a lesser extent of failure though. The 5 speed box is a old design its a rework of the 4 speed box from the early Polos and the main area of weakness is the bearings in 5th, the diff and diff bearings this is why most of them make a noise before they go. If the diff bearings fail it generally takes the casing with it meaning either recasing the parts left or a replacement box.

VW did redesign the box this is why the Lupo GTI changed to a 6 speed box after all the warranty repairs started coming through on the Polo/Lupo GTi 5 speed box. From posts here a scary number have failed with under 40k on them, I've never heard of one making it past 80k on the GTI. The 6 speed box never made it to the Polo as the Polo GTI had ceased production.

Dangerous Dave wrote:From posts here a scary number have failed with under 40k on them, I've never heard of one making it past 80k on the GTI. The 6 speed box never made it to the Polo as the Polo GTI had ceased production.

I'm at 74500 miles and worried

Si_GTi wrote:

Dangerous Dave wrote:From posts here a scary number have failed with under 40k on them, I've never heard of one making it past 80k on the GTI. The 6 speed box never made it to the Polo as the Polo GTI had ceased production.

I'm at 74500 miles and worried

you should be..........

Mines done about 67k now, just been told it's the bearings. They're worn very badly, pitted, and all need replacing. Luckily enough i took it in to the garage before anything went bang (just dodgy grinding / whining noises).

I went to look at the box (all laid out in bits on a table) and there's a magnet positioned somewhere inside it that presumably collects debris or small metal bits from parts during normal wear. Anyways, this was covered in filings and the garage guy said this was an enormous amount from usual.

Problem i have now is that some of the replacement beaings may take up until the 19th october to arrive.

Looks like i may be driving my ford escort "courtesy" car for longer than intended!

The main reason I sold my Polo was the gearbox/clutch worries, I was never easy on the car for almost 50k I had it and I felt I was pushing my luck running it any longer past 67k the box was starting to feel a little looser than it used it and I was starting to hear funny noises from it every so often. (I traded it in at a VAG dealer so the new owner gets a years warranty)

I'm not saying the box won't last past 80k though maybe that was a bit strongly worded I would at least get the gearbox oil changed however doesn't cost much, I got mine done a few times the dealer never charged more than £25 for it. The magnet is on the oil plug so when changing the oil you clear this off getting the crap out of the box.

Another small common fault with the box that doesn't help is the seal where the gear linkage entries the box fails and allows gearbox oil to leak causing the box to overheat if the oil level gets too low because the Polo has a engine bay under tray the oil drips on this rather than the road/drive so its hard to tell its leaking always worth checking this every so often I caught mine quickly as I noticed it doing a oil change the part isn't even £5 so I would even say get it changed at the next service.

Right I'm gonna have my oil changed

Got my car back on saturday, after having most of the gearbox bearings replaced, new sachs clutch, and lightened flywheel whilst geabox was apart (£68 +VAT).

The sachs organic clutch is amazing! So smooth! And it is worth doing the flywheel in my opinion (if you're in the clutch/gearbox area) - more responsive, and slightly better acceleration.

It was still popping out of 5th gear however, so i'm now back to the quality escort while they fix it properly.

Ant

Where did you get your lightened flywheel from ?

Cars back again today, seems to be allright. Not popping out of fifth anymore, still a bit notchy with gear changes though.

Richard Harper - The flywheel is the original, but just with some material removed to lighten it. Thought i'd try to get a bit of a bonus when i had the gearbox looked at, seeing as it wasn't too much to do it.

Try asking at your local garage, they'll probably send it off somewhere for the material to be removed.

Ant