Clunky gearbox

[Steveyboy]

Hey guys, I was just wondering what your gearboxes are like, specifically the 2.0 diesel 150 ones?

My gearbox feels notchy/clunky when putting it into gear.

I have a 2013 octavia estate 4x4 with 45k on the clock

Is it normal for skodas to be like this?

Edited 7 December, 2016 by Steveyboy

[glosrich]

The VW gearbox is fairly clunky.

[gRoberts]

I only picked up mine yesterday and a few times now I've not actually got it into gear properly. My old Fabia used to slip in like... well, you can guess lol 

[glosrich]

Mines on 7k miles its just loosening up now. Although 4th can still baulk, reverse sometimes needs a 2nd declutch.

[Alpha2110]

Mine is rough when cold, 1st to 2nd are awful, this is due to the oil temp and the bigger syncros used on the mq box. Most vag cars apparently suffer from this. its nasty when its warm there could be issues. It takes ages to heat the box up.

To be honest there are good things about this gearbox, its a strong unit, but its not the smoothest of boxes whwn cold. When its hot is slick nice positive shift.

[paulsoava]

Same thing here, especially on cold mornings it sometimes refuses to go into first and I need to declutch and try again. It's also jerky when shifting to second. I too find that it takes ages to warm up, I rarely get there on less than 20 minute drives (it does get better but only marginally). And yes, my old mk2 1,9 TDI had en excellent gearbox, smooth as silk. Don't know what they're up to.

[AllanDJ]

Different gear box in mine compared to the 2 litre diesel but my five speed box changes up and down pretty easily it has to be said, night and day compared to the stiff gearbox and clutch in my old Mondeo 2.2TD which was truly hideous, bordering on painful to use if you ever got stuck in heavy traffic!

[just music]

It's quite heartening in a way to read this. I came to the Octavia from a Fabia: that had the smoothest gearbox of any car I've driven, whilst the Octavia is poor. It really is the only thing that lets the car down.

[Mallettsmallett]

Is the 2.0 tsi box different again? I've never had any problems from cold

[MoggyTech]

Just to echo the findings thus far. My old Fabia VRS gearbox was pretty slick. The Octavia VRS gearbox was a bit hit or miss. It would frequently refuse to go into reverse without a double declutch. First and second gear were always a bit notchy, while the remaining gears were slick.

 

If it gets really bad, you could always have the cables reset, it's only a ten minute job. At higher mileages a gearbox oil change might help. If all gears get hard to select it could be a dragging clutch. The clutch release bearing is also the slave cylinder, and there's an anti vibration valve in the hydraulic line that can also cause problems.

[pjam73]

...and there's an anti vibration valve in the hydraulic line that can also cause problems.

Is that the little yellow plastic piece in the clutch bleeder valve block? The piece all the GTI guys remove to reduce clutch delay?

[MoggyTech]

Is that the little yellow plastic piece in the clutch bleeder valve block? The piece all the GTI guys remove to reduce clutch delay?

The ones I used to see were  round, about the size of a tin of vaseline. One pipe in, one out. Could be plastic these days, been a while.

[Alpha2110]

I dont know if this is relevent but modern diesels have loads of torque so i think getting a gearbox to handle this is quite challenging, the torque of the 2l diesel engine is actually ferrari 360 territory. Hence the gearbox needs to be realy bomb proof, big syncros, and higher spec oil, with a higher kinematic viscosaty. All of this manifests itself when cold as i think its more difficult to design a gearbox of this type to be usable at all temps. I think there is 2 oil types for this box, i am sure i read on this forum there is an oil that is thinner, for colder climates. However the dealer hasent heard of this. It would be interesting to see what the penalty is for using a thiner oil, apart from the obvious increased ware.

[ednmra]

Depends what you are used to. I've had some really smooth gearboxes in the past so yes this one is a bit clunky.