I own a 57 plate Octavia elegance estate (1.9 TDi 105 with 5 speed box) and although it has just done 20,000 miles the gearbox seems to whine when in second gear, worse in fourth gear ( most noticable at about 48mph)and also on the overun. Gearchange from second to third in very clunky also. Are they all like this now? my old Octavia had 85,000 on the clock when I sold it but had none of these issues.

My partners 1.4Tdi (07 plate)Fabia which has only done 12,000 miles also whines a bit in fourth, is Skoda's quality control slipping on newer cars?

I own a 57 plate Octavia elegance estate (1.9 TDi 105 with 5 speed box) and although it has just done 20,000 miles the gearbox seems to whine when in second gear, worse in fourth gear ( most noticable at about 48mph)and also on the overun. Gearchange from second to third in very clunky also. Are they all like this now? my old Octavia had 85,000 on the clock when I sold it but had none of these issues.

My partners 1.4Tdi (07 plate)Fabia which has only done 12,000 miles also whines a bit in fourth, is Skoda's quality control slipping on newer cars?

I had a 1.9TDi for 50k miles - gearbox never whined at all

Edited 26 October, 201015 yr by eccleshill

Drained the gearbox oil this morning and found traces on shiny bearing metal and some aluminium swarf so not looking good, rang Skoda and they want to remove and strip the gearbox at my expense (about £500) to find the problem. Car is a month out of warranty and I couldnt get an answer as too wether they could get it done as a "good will gesture" car hasnt even done 20k yet!

Has anyone else had any joy getting out of warranty repairs done? I have only owned the car about 5 months and certainly wasnt expecting to have to fork out up to £2000 on repairs.....

Sounds like somethings come off in the box, I wonder if its suffered the same issue as the 5 speed box on Felicias where a nut would come loose and eventually come off altogether.

My old Octavia at 5 years old and 100K miles still had a quiet gearbox with smooth changes.

My dad had a similar issues with his PD105 Passat, they ended up rebuilding the gearbox

Therse are not Skoda-specific gearboxes, they are the same as used on a range of VAG cars.

A certain amount of metal in the gearbox oil would be normal if its the first time it has been drained. Normally there is some yellow metal (from the syncho's), some steel (from the gears themselves) and some alloy (from the selector mechanism). If the particles are all very small then that's OK. Bigger 'chunks' would be bad news.

Some whine is acceptable and comes from worn bearings. Often they will soldier on for a long time without getting much worse.

I would be inclined to keep running the gearbox and monitor the whine. If it deteriorates take it to an independent gearbox rebuilder. To fit new bearings is not hugely expensive (around the price your dealer wants to charge for investigation), plus the cost of R&R on the box ( a couple of hours, plus a clutch - makes sense to do it when the box is off - at least the centre plate).

Probably worth refilling with a slightly lighter oil and see if it gets into the bearings better.

A month out of warranty?

I certainly wouldn't be dropping the oil myself... another excuse for Skoda to not cough up.

Tricky situation though...

1) Pay £500 to see if Skoda might contribute?

2) Take it to an independent specialist and accept it's going to cost you to either find a fault and/or fix it.

3) Replace the oil and hope it doesn't get worse.

4) Flog it!