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1.4TDi Gearbox


_LM46
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So I went over a pothole on a slip road onto the M25 and now my gears have gone completely all over the place, I’ve got a feeling I can hear a subtle whine coming from the passenger side front, but could just be a wheel bearing, but basically it’s practically impossible to get into 3RD gear and from 5TH to 4TH it practically falls into gear and crunches for some reason, I’m guessing it’s going to need a new gearbox, but if you think it’s something else don’t hesitate to reply, but if it is then does anyone know where to get a Lupo TDi box? And I have heard that some of the polo 1.4TDI boxes fit it so if anyone knows exactly please let me know as I really don’t want to give up on the car but it’s trying my patience

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Try resetting the selector cables as well: 

EXB is the code for them and they were in the polo 1.4 tdi until 2001 as well. Other gearboxes will fit though you just need to know the codes and ratios to make sure they are suitable.

Edited by Sausage
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Yes there seems to be a lot of play in the shifter, the gear pattern seems to change and you end up hunting the gears down, I bought a bushing and slider kit for the gear linkage and will be fitting that tomorrow but I’m hoping that it isn’t the gearbox as I know it’s tough to find one, will be resetting the selector cables once I have put the the new bushings onto the gear linkage and hopefully that should help but if not looks like I’m hunting a new gearbox, thanks

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Linkage bushes aren't the way to go.

Take the tower out and I'm 90% certain you'll find the play in that at the top.

I once repaired one with a trimmed down piece of radiator hose and it still holds to this day.

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I've got my old one sat in the garage. Nothing much wrong with it, I just built a better one with an LSD. Unfortunately it's in Harrogate which is a long way from you.

 

It's easy enough to swap to the newer 02J shifter tower which is definitely better than the original item.

Edited by yeha
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So basically did a few little bits today and then reset the gear linkage and to be honest it’s hardly driveable, when it’s stood still you can get it into gear no problem but when it is moving it doesn’t want to go in or back down into any gear, from 5th to 4th it crunches, 3rd is practically impossible to get into, when it’s in gears you can move the gear stick from side to side and if I’m honest I’m getting impatient now as the car just keeps playing up with gears, it was fine for a while but now it’s gone back to square one! There is a lot of free play in the selector arm so going to do that next and replace all the bushings in hope that it’s just the gear selection with the linkage and shifter tower, but let me know your opinions on what it’s most likely to be todo with based on what is happening now

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Should hope so it’s had a new clutch and it seemed fine until I hit a bump everything’s gone out of whack with the gears now, cars not majorly low or anything so no actual damage to anything structurally, had a new clutch slave cylinder and was bled and all sorted so wouldn’t think it would be the clutch, the clutch was new around 3k miles ago 

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Had a thought.... Does the tdi have a gearbox stabilising strap thing, which keeps the gear shift system stable like on an SDI? If that ali connection between the engine/box and body moves on an SDI, the gears go all floppy, similar to what you're describing. It's the only thing I can imagine happening if it all went wrong after hitting a bump. The inertia/mass of the engine/gearbox is pretty high so my guess is that the engine mounts would take most of the shock.

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If there is slop on the selector tower then that could well be your problem. Crack the oil level plug though and make sure oil weeps out to confirm there is sufficient oil in there while you are there I'd jack up one front wheel at a time and see what it does when going thru the gears. 

Can you manually select all gears on the tower in the engine bay by hand? Nothing in the way of the counter weight etc?

Syncros could well be knackered but that doesnt fit with a sudden problem after a pothole tbh unless you have bent a fork or put a lot of force on the gear stick when hitting the hole, but the oil will be shiny metallic when drained most likely.

If you need a gearbox then a tdi 02J with suitable ratios, or a tdi 02R will fit too, you need to shave the gearbox webbing for the mount and make about 7mm packing for the outside on that mount (not the inside like i did), swap the speedo drive over and get some 02R cable ends. There might be something to grind off in the bellhousing as well (i read that after fitting mine) as i got some nice noises from mine for a few minutes which sounded like the thrust bearing wasnt seated right but it shut up after a bit.

 

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Was a lot of slack in the selector tower, custom made a bushing type thing to stabilise it and it seems to of worked but still no closer with the actual gear change, I’m going to try the bushing kit for the actual shifter in the car and hopefully that will be the final piece of the puzzle, if not looks like I’m hunting down a decent condition 1.4 TDi box 😐

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So not much progress has been made, messed around with everything to do with with the linkage and actual shift, but haven’t got anywhere really still won’t shift nicely and a bit crunchy in each gear, clutch isn’t dragging put it in gear and started it in gear, if it was dragging it would have jolted but didn’t, all the gears pull fine once you are in but shifting in and out of them doesn’t work very well at all, so I’m assuming it’s a gearbox issue now and was wondering if anyone knows the best gearbox or best place to get one, had a look at the gearbox, the gearbox looks older than the engine, I really want to find a gearbox for the car as the engine is solid and the car has a few little issues and needs a tidy up but wouldn’t be major work, it’s just the gearbox, any more suggestions before I start hunting a gearbox? Any more things to try

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