Hello everyone. On march I bought a 2013 mk2 vrs with 125.000km 2 owners. 

 

DSG service done at 60.000 and 120.000km.

 

It drove fine except for a bad wheel bearing at the rear and a leaking HPFP. I replaced both and serviced the car. I noticed a slight clunk when selecting D or R. Take off felt ok and gear changes feels great. I thought it needed a basic settings done to the trans.

 

I tried a basics settings but failed the clutch adaption. The my clutch went crazy. It wouldn't stay on D or R without trying to take of with my foot on the brake. It would engage the clutch violently almost stalling (it stalled a couple of times) and release it. I was able to do a "driving adaption?" by driving in 5th and 6th for some minutes. The clutch went back to how it was before. I went to an indi vw mechanic I trust and he couldn't get the clutch adaption to pass either. He did say the gearbox feels great and that I doesn't seem to be the mechatronics.

 

He suggested to change the trans and dogbone mount and check the axles.

 

What I've done so far:

- replaced trans mount.

- installed a dogbone mount insert (Aliexpress).

- replaced and balance tires (previous ones needed replacement).

 

Current symptoms:

1- if I leave the car in P "leaned to the front" (facing a downhill for example); selecting D will knock hard, sometimes jumping briefly from D1 to D2 and back, but selecting R won't knock at all (it'd be perfectly smooth). They same happens the other way around: knock on R if I park on P "leaned to the rear" (facing an uphill incline). 

 

2-If R is selected, I select N then R again I don't get a clunk. The same with 😧 D-N-D doesn't clunk.

 

3- trans slack: when releasing throttle or applying you can see the rpms drop or jump respectively accompanied by a clunk that you can hear and feel. On higher gears its harder to feel but on lowers its extremely noticeable.

 

4- vibration over 90km/h (maybe unbalanced wheels but unlikely).

 

5- additional vibration under WOT acceleration between 120-140km/h.

 

6- clutch engagement: at a red light I need to release the brake, wait 1-2s let the clutch start to engage by itself then apply throttle; if not it will engage the clutch too abruptly and the car will take off like someone learning to drive! This symptom is much more pronounced with a cold engine (2-3s wait before taking off). If I apply too much throttle too soon it will drop the gear and sturt jerking engaging and disengaging the clutch until it takes off or I release the throttle.

 

7- clutch on decel: you can definitely feel firm gear changes while slowing down. Specially when braking harder.

 

8 - slight whine on 1st gear.

 

I believe I have 2 problems: clutch adaption and trans slack somewhere. Maybe worn clutches too. My mechanic said that the trans slack might be the cause why we couldn't perform the clutch adaption too.

 

Possible suspects:

- DMF: I thought of its Splines but I think it doesn't respond to symptoms 1 and 2. Plus I had a dmf go bad on previous octy 1.6 tdi and this one doesn't sound like it at all.

-clutch pack/basket: on dirtbikes clutch baskets get worn and they start to drag and have slack, Dsg clutches are similar in construction to them. "Slack wise", symptoms should be as a bad DMF's splines so it wouldn't respond to symptoms 1 and 2.

- Diff: I saw a bad dif where the spider gears inside had play. This may respond symptoms 1 to 5?

- Drive flanges splines: on T5s this is a common problem and responds symptoms 1,2 and 3. I haven't been able to find anyone with this problem on a 02E box.

- bad inner CV: this would respond symptoms 1 to 5 but I've been under my octy and checked for slack/play while having someone selecting R and D constantly and I wasn't able to see any movement between the flange and the axle. They feel solid and the clunk feels to come from inside the box.

 

I'm not sure how to diagnose further. I might need to pull the axles. I've read that the o/s (right) axle is more prone to failure due to it being exposed to the turbo/downpipe heat.

 

Has anyone here have had splines go on their DMF, clutchpack, drive flanges or have inner cvs issues? How did you pinpoint it?

 

Thank you all in advance!

 

I found the issue....

 

The pin that hold the spider gears ate away its housing in the diff.

 

The pictures and video talk by themselves.

 

The slack I felt in the drivetrain could also be on CV joints or axle splines (I believe some DQ500s in T5s have this issue).

Comprehensively nadgered!