VW TOURAN TDI slipping out of 6th gear

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Soldato
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Hi all,

Got a major issue with my 06 plate VW TOURAN 1.9 TDI.

Was driving on the motorway earlier in 6th and the car lost all power and revved real high, I pooped it and put clutch in. Then tried it again, stays in 6th with barely any throttle, but as soon as I put foot down even slightly it pops back into natural.

Had to drive my seven and a half hour journey (usually 5 hours!) in 5th gear in the slow lane at about 50mph.

Car has recently had the flywheel and clutch replaced, couple of months back maybe.

Before I got the flywheel replaced it was making a kind of grinding sound when coming off the throttle in low gears and that noise has come back, but it never did the popping out of gear thing before.

Any ideas what the problem could be?

Pretty worried about this one :(

Cheers,

G
 
Before doing anything, make sure the gearbox has enough oil in it, and oil of the correct grade. It might sound silly but I read about a few cases where low gearbox oil caused issues like this. It could also be the cause of the noise.

You could go back to the garage and try to play the "6th gear doesn't work after the work you did" card, it could be that they didn't put enough/the right oil back in! There might have been damage/wear already, but it is now causing an issue because of the difference in thickness/amount of oil.

If there is no issue with the oil, its probably to do with the 6th gear synchro, might need a new gear and synchromesh ring. Just guesswork based on the fact that I had a similar issue with my 5th gear in my old car (Polo 9N) - it was hard to get it in gear as well as popping out in my case though.

The grinding sound coming off of the throttle is usually the clutch release bearing, but that *should* have been replaced along with the clutch. It may be another bearing in the gearbox. Input shaft perhaps.

Otherwise it might be time to take the box out and get it stripped down and any damaged bits replaced. I imagine it would be mid triple figures to get the 6th gear synchro replaced including removal and re-fitting of the gearbox, but it differs from car to car. I was quoted £650 to get my gearbox bearings replaced, including removal and re-fitting of the gearbox (totally different car, a Toyota)

This is all guesswork mind you!
 
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Acme said:
Its probably to do with the 6th gear synchro, might need a new gear and synchromesh ring. Just guesswork based on the fact that I had a similar issue with my 5th gear in my old car (Polo 9N) - it was hard to get it in gear as well as popping out in my case though.

What I'm wondering though is why you slogged it home at 50MPH? You could have just gone the same speed as usual in 5th. Fuel economy would probably have been OK still!

Did the work get done at a reputable garage? I assume it was gearbox out work to do the clutch and flywheel. You could go back and try to play the "6th gear doesn't work after the work you did" card, but in reality it is probably a coincidence... :(

The grinding sound coming off of the throttle is usually the clutch release bearing, but that *should* have been replaced along with the clutch. It may be another bearing in the gearbox. Input shaft perhaps.
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Hi mate, thanks for the quick reply. :)

I took it steady on the motorway because I had the Mrs and my three kids in the car and I was genuinely worried we were going to break down in the middle of nowhere on our way to nanas for Xmas. You're probably right, probably would have been ok, but was too worried to take any chances under the circumstances.

It's defo the exact same noise it had before the clutch and flywheel were replaced.

It was done by a local garage where I bought my EP3, a mate from school's dad owns the place and they have always done right by me in the past.

They did have to remove the gear box. They said it was lucky I brought it in when I did because the gearbox housing looked like it was starting to get scratched up :/ I had no choice about taking it in as the flywheel had completely given up the ghost and the car had to be towed there at that point :(

It's fine going into gear, just pops out under any kind of throttle.

Any ideas now much it may cost to sort if it is the synchro? (I don't even know what that is)

Was going to get it looked at by a local garage here where I'm on holiday before taking it back down South after Xmas to the garage that did the work.

/edit I topped the car up with oil before the journey today, would that help? Or is it a seperate stash of oil entirely?

Cheers,

G
 
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Quite a lot of hits on Google if you search something like "VW popping out of gear" - most hits seem to be oil starvation because of low oil level, or synchro's. :)
 
Yeah I've had a read through and seen similar...do you know if the me topping up the oil this morning would mean that couldn't be the case? (By just pouring oil in the cap on top of the engine like normal)

Cheers,

G
 
The gearbox has a separate supply of oil. There will be a fill plug somewhere on the gearbox itself. It will contain oil which is usually much thicker than the stuff you put in the engine.

I'd find out if they touched the oil in the gearbox. If they did, then you might be onto something, make sure they put the right stuff in, and the right amount. If they didn't touch the gearbox oil, it may be worth getting them to change it to see if it helps.

It could also be gear linkages being out of adjustment, but I'm not sure about the likelihood of that, as I imagine they just detatched the gear linkage cables when the took the box out, and re-attached them when they put the box back in.

What mileage is on it out of curiosity?
 
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OK. I'm all out of advice that I can offer from my personal experiences and brief Googling, I hope I helped at least a little!

I expect there will be more people posting in here tomorrow. Hopefully someone who has had the same issue and had it fixed! :)
 
Worst case: a retaining bolt within the gearbox works loose and allows the 6th gear to move on it's shaft which prevents full engagement of the synchro hub and a grinding noise. This is not unknown to happen on certain VW 6 speed gearboxes at higher mileages.

It could also be caused by a problem with the gear selector mechanism or cables, which would be a much easier and cheaper fault to fix.
 
Thanks Dogbreath, do you know if this retaining bolt would have had to have been removed/touched during the clutch and flywheel replacement? It seems too much of a coincidence that a garage has just had the gearbox open and now I have this happen.

All the work they did came with a warranty and I need to know if I should be pressing them to sort this for that reason.

If they definitely wouldn't have had to touch that bit and it's just a massively unfortunate coincidence then I really don't want to point any fingers. The fact that 6th gear hasn't been used since they did the work is making me wonder if that's when it started with this issue.

From what I understand you can look at the linkages etc without opening the gearbox, so I'm hoping that a local garage can check that for me today for free.

Cheers,

G
 
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There is a hose connected to the turbo on those I believe that has a habit of working loose after around 70K miles that causes loss of power (don't think it causes issues with staying in gear but not sure) don't really know exact details but know a couple of people who've experienced it.

More rarely some of the older ones have a comrail issue that can cause those symptoms but I think that is just the 2.0.
 
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Rroff said:
There is a hose connected to the turbo on those I believe that has a habit of working loose after a few 10s of thousands of miles that causes loss of power (don't think it causes issues with staying in gear but not sure) don't really know exact details but know a couple of people who've experienced it.

More rarely some of the older ones have a comrail issue that can cause those symptoms but I think that is just the 2.0.
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Cheers, the Turbo has been replaced too :/ ******* hate this car :(
 
Seems not a totally uncommon issue after about 70K miles with inability to exceed about 50mph - can't see any mention online of people having issue staying in gear though with that problem.

My parents have the 1.9 TDI Touran for longer road trips though they've not had it very long they've not had too much problem with it (other than the turbo dying a dramatic death on the way home from buying it).

EDIT: They had one awhile back as well which had no problems that I recall.
 
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Just to clarify, the power is there, I can take 5th gear up to 70mph etc I just didn't want to in case any more damage occurred because my kids were desperate to make it to Nana's and not have to get towed home instead :)
 
Hmm not very inspiring but according to my dad they got shot of the old one past 100K miles as the engine started needing a lot of work and regretting this one as its been nothing like as reliable as the other VWs they've owned.
 
Guru said:
Thanks Dogbreath, do you know if this retaining bolt would have had to have been removed/touched during the clutch and flywheel replacement? It seems too much of a coincidence that a garage has just had the gearbox open and now I have this happen.
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No, the bolt is inside the gearbox itself and retains the gear on the end of the shaft. It can be accessed by removing the end of the gearbox, but is not something you would ever go near when doing a clutch change.

However, you remove the gearbox and the associated gear selector cables when replacing a clutch, so there's a possibility that something was bent/broken during dismantling or not re-installed correctly.
 
Took it to a local garage who took it for a test drive and said he thinks it is the gearbox :( because of the grinding/rattling that makes in each gear :( No idea how much that will cost, but sounds expensive. Gutting.
 
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