Gear oil change/slipping clutch

Hi there, I changed my gearbox oil last weekend, not a great deal came out - maybe just over a litre, then put 2 litres back in through the speedo hole.

Ever since my clutch has been slipping, so I think its got oil over the clutch as its too much of a coincidence that the clutch went a few minutes after doing the oil.

I would assume its the seal for the push rod thats gone and probably why there wasnt much oil in it - which brings me to my question - how difficult is it to change the seal?

obviously it will be a gearbox out job which doesnt bother me too much (although I could do without it in this weather!), but is it a complete strip down of the box? If so might just find a new box as its quite crunchy going up and down into 2nd & 1st

Cheers

Have a look at Welcome to BrokeVW.com - that should have all the info on it that you need.

Just a thought - did you definitely put the oil in the speedo hole? There's a hole in the gearbox casing for setting the spark timing with (goes through to the flywheel & clutch)…

Stop me if you already know what I'm talking about!

HTH

Rich

It's an easy enough job. Should only take an hour or so (not including removing & refitting the box!)

Get the pushrod bearing too as wear in this causes wear in the seal. Think about changing the rear crankshaft seal while the box is off too…

Can clean the clutch with coke if there is plenty of life left in it.

LOL - yeah got it in the speedo hole.

Does it have to be coke? or will pepsi do just as well?!

Cheers guys, looks like I have a fun weekend coming up soon!

if you need a hand give me a shout.

11.30 diet coke break…

if your in disbelief about the coke. Try sticking a dirty penny (or a 2 p if your loaded But Credit crunch and all) in some coke over night.

Next morning Bling coin…

Magic…..

cheers jim, might need the red ones box the way its going this week!! - when it gets warm, bout 20mile into the trek to work its started tonight not wanting to change down at all from 5th - really having to bang it in hard. but its fine again when I came to it after work, then same again around 20 mile in, having to bang it into gears.....strange....

rossirvine said

cheers jim, might need the red ones box the way its going this week!! - when it gets warm, bout 20mile into the trek to work its started tonight not wanting to change down at all from 5th - really having to bang it in hard. but its fine again when I came to it after work, then same again around 20 mile in, having to bang it into gears…..strange….

That's not symptoms of a slipping clutch!

yes i know paul - this is as well!!! its getting a bit poorly at the mo!

I could be wrong but I think the oil causes the friction disc to stick to the pressure plate.

ahhh - that could explain the difficult to engage gears

cedar said

I could be wrong but I think the oil causes the friction disc to stick to the pressure plate.

yep wrong  

oil will make it slip badly

try adjusting the clucth and see if the gear change is any easier

if you slacken the cable it may stop slipping

Reviewing the symptoms, you need to remove/replace the clutch friction disc and pushrod seal anyway, so may as well crack on with this. I can't see any point in trying to clean up a contaminated, part-worn friction disc if you have the opportunity to replace it, doesn't make sense to me. And once all back together, adjust the clutch properly and it should be okay.

Crunching into gears is probably down to the adjustment but could be the symptom of another issue with the cable, eg bulkhead flexing where the clutch cable goes in, fittings missing, or the cable otherwise loose.

cheers - got a week off next month anyways (the joys of working in the car industry at the mo!) so I'll whip the box out then.  Would have changed the disc and pressure plate as a matter of course anyways.  How much of a job is the crank seal to do whilst the box is off? can you do it all with just the sump off or can you just do the bottom half? (assuming its like other cars I've worked on when the seals are in 2 halfs)

Its a while since I've done this but from memory the crankshaft seal is in a small alloy housing that is bolted to the block with 6mm bolts, you just take it off complete with seal.The position of the seal in the housing is critical so make a note of where the original is before you remove it. VW only sell the complete thing, seal and housing and it was about ?50 but you should be able to get a seal only from the likes of GSF or Europarts. To renew the pushrod seal I think you just remove the rod and then prise the old seal out with a piece of bent wire or something similar. then tap the new one in.