ok here goes , a strange thing happened tonight , whilst travelling round a roundabout the car made a bang noise like it was jumping out of gear , could really feel it too , the whole car shook , about 100yds on , it started to struggle moving forward until it final jerked to a stop (like the brakes had been slammed on) , it refused to move forward (in any forward gear) , only way to get it moving again was to reverse slightly then it would move forward , there is also a strong smell of grease , managed to get car home ok and still goes into and comes out of gear ok? its a 2003 octy vrs 65000 on clock , no warning lights etc , any ideas?

cheers

Strong smell of grease could be gear oil, which really stinks. There is a possibility something horrid may have happened within the diff/crownwheel. Check it over carefully for leaks in the light.

Hopefully it won't be anything so serious.

Cv joint collapse? How did the steering feel when moving?

Must admit gearbox sounds more likely tho

steering feels fine , theres a bit of a pulsing feeling at low speed , nothing serious though , had a quick look in the dark and there looks to be fluid on top of front part of gearbox , however i cant tell if its water or iol , will have a better look in morning

The pulsing you describe is what mine felt like after big pot hole hit last christmas. 20 or so miles of wondering what was bent and then the gearbox muched itself. On the bright side the vrs box is a lot easier to get hold of than the 4x4

Having changed a few clutches in my time, I can tell you now that gearbox oil (whilst smelling amazing) is also the sweet smell of death. It's a bit young for the gearbox to go pop, but... I'd be inclined to agree with the other members.

The feeling of the brakes being slammed on gives me the impression something in the 'box has jammed quite nicely. Any mods- remap, LSD, bigger turbo, etc? Anyone fiddled with the gearbox/clutch?

Hopefully it's just a cv joint , but in all honesty it's sounds more like your diff has broke :-( I hope you get it sorted

strange thing is , the car drives fine this morning and came home from (15 miles) from where it happened without a prob , other than the strong smell of grease lol , it goes in every gear and is smooth now , so dunno , its at volks-tek this morning to be checked over , so fingers crossed , cheers for all the input guys

If you haven't suffered a gearbox/diff/cv failure of somekind then the other thing which comes to mind is something (bit of gravel?) stuck in your brake disks jamming them, but that would not explain the fluid you found, or the smell of grease.....

or the "Pulsing". Mine ended up punching a nice hole in the casing when is decided to pick up the loose bits in the gears and fling them around. Hope you get better news than I had.

bad news , it sheared a bolt and blown a hole in casing :( i now need a gearbox , wheres best , would rather not fork out for a new box , so recon / used with warranty prefered , code is EHA on box

Think there's one on the for sale section

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/02j-mk1-vrs-octavia-gearbox-/290642091742?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item43ab9e5ede

No warranty though and no idea how many miles its done :(

This is the one i was thinking about My link

box sourced and will be fitted next week thanks for all the help guys the wife aint too happy about the drain on the bank balance like , but hey-ho lol

had exactly the same on mine. bit the bullet and had the box rebuild with fresh bearings and bits. £390 all in (inc a new casing)