UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

May seem a silly question but is there anybody with a Polo 16v (or GTI) who has had it a while NOT had a gearbox problem?

Been thinking about getting a mk4 Polo to replace my sick mk3 GT and am a little concerened about the gearbox problems I keep reading about.

Do they always break? I don't want to buy a cheap banger and then have to spend nearly a grand fixing the gearbox!!! I do a lot of town driving so the gears get used a lot.

dont wanna tempt fate but in 6yrs ive had mine ive never had any probs at all.

When I driving my 6n GTI... I swear that I rape the gearbox more or less every day.

Have never been a problem (due to 240 000 km since -97).

Polo gearboxes in general aren't too great but problems occur more in 16v's and 6n2 GTI's because they're the models that put most strain no the gearboxes to show them up! They tend to get starved of oil or something (can't remember the cause but was told ages ago!) and the bearings usually break.

Anyway, if you thrash the gearbox like crazy then you could cause it to break. However it shouldn't cost anything more to recon then £600. SO the best thing to do if you have concerns is to put rally bearings inside your good box before it breaks! It will be much stronger and cheaper then fixing a broken one.

I like your thinking!

Trouble is the labour rates involved and the fact that most gearboxes I've known that have been rebuilt don't last very long either. Locally I've yet to hear of a gearbox specialist with a decent reputation.