Polo Gearbox grumbling

Our 97 manual (1600) polo has recently developed gearbox bearing noises -
the sort that you just know are going to go from "slight" to "we need to fit
a more powerful radio in this thing"

My independent mechanic thinks the car is toast - cost more to fix than its
worth, he pointed to another one in the workshop and said that it's gearbox
had done the same thing and he was stripping the car for parts.

What do the mages think? Seems a shame - Km's 110,000 otherwise very tidy.

Dave (no not that one)

I had a noisy tranny on my 67 Beetle. I got another tranny from the
scrap yard. I drove another 100,000 miles on that used tranny before I
sold it. My friend's dad took that tranny apart to see what the noise
was. They had a 66 squareback with a noisy tranny. Is it possible that
the noisy bearing is one easy to get to? I know some are quite buried.
On Fri, 17 Apr 2009 22:45:09 +1200, "DC" >
wrote:

>Our 97 manual (1600) polo has recently developed gearbox bearing noises -
>the sort that you just know are going to go from "slight" to "we need to fit
>a more powerful radio in this thing"
>
>My independent mechanic thinks the car is toast - cost more to fix than its
>worth, he pointed to another one in the workshop and said that it's gearbox
>had done the same thing and he was stripping the car for parts.
>
>What do the mages think? Seems a shame - Km's 110,000 otherwise very tidy.
>
>Dave (no not that one)
>

Hi Jim - not sure really. Being somewhat time poor I would end up paying
someone else to change out / repair the box.....

"Jim Behning" > wrote in message
...
>I had a noisy tranny on my 67 Beetle. I got another tranny from the
> scrap yard. I drove another 100,000 miles on that used tranny before I
> sold it. My friend's dad took that tranny apart to see what the noise
> was. They had a 66 squareback with a noisy tranny. Is it possible that
> the noisy bearing is one easy to get to? I know some are quite buried.
> On Fri, 17 Apr 2009 22:45:09 +1200, "DC" >
> wrote:
>
>>Our 97 manual (1600) polo has recently developed gearbox bearing noises -
>>the sort that you just know are going to go from "slight" to "we need to
>>fit
>>a more powerful radio in this thing"
>>
>>My independent mechanic thinks the car is toast - cost more to fix than
>>its
>>worth, he pointed to another one in the workshop and said that it's
>>gearbox
>>had done the same thing and he was stripping the car for parts.
>>
>>What do the mages think? Seems a shame - Km's 110,000 otherwise very tidy.
>>
>>Dave (no not that one)
>>

The availability of a "low miles" salvage yard transmission is a
deciding factor as well. That and labor hopefully shouldn't run more
than $700USD plus a typical 3-month junk yard warranty (but no
labor).

On Apr 17, 3:45*am, "DC" > wrote:
> Our 97 manual (1600) polo has recently developed gearbox bearing noises -
> the sort that you just know are going to go from "slight" to "we need to fit
> a more powerful radio in this thing"
>
> My independent mechanic thinks the car is toast - cost more to fix than its
> worth, he pointed to another one in the workshop and said that it's gearbox
> had done the same thing and he was stripping the car for parts.
>
> What do the mages think? Seems a shame - Km's 110,000 otherwise very tidy..
>
> Dave (no not that one)

On Apr 17, 6:45*am, "DC" > wrote:

> What do the mages think? Seems a shame - Km's 110,000 otherwise very tidy..

No "mage" here, but I once had a 1969 Westie - many, many moons ago -
that developed a very loud gearbox - sounded like glass-in-a-blender
at about 90,000 miles. So, I drained the fluid (it was not low, by the
way) - good bit of metallic sludge, rinsed it with kerosene several
times - put in 80% hyploid oil, 20% moly-disulphide paste (made for
trannies, not the bearing-grease stuff) and a magnetic drain plug. It
cost me something like $20 at the time for the stuff and $5 for the
magnetic plug. But it worked and a bunch cheaper than even a junkyard
tranny.

Sold it ~50,000 miles later still running fine. Not kitten-quiet by
any means, but certainly below Heavy-Metal on the 100-watt stereo
level.

NOTE: It never leaked fluid.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA