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Hi,

Excuse the word-vomit title - but I think that's the best way to shorten down.

Recently I've noticed a very loud metallic noise coming from my gearbox. When I'm changing gears (even "wobbling" in neutral) there's a dull metal on metal noise, I've never noticed this because I usually have my music on loud and that's enough to drown it out. However, when I change in to 2nd gear there's a noticeable bang. Metal on metal sort of bang. It's something that I've noticed for a while but always assumed it was due to me dropping the clutch too quickly but regardless of how quickly or slowly I do that it persists. It's not a constant thing but it's frequent. To put it in to perspective of how loud this is a friend of mine was the one to alert me to it. He was in his Cupra, windows up and music on and he was able to hear it happen.... so yeah, loud.

I've had a nose around and asked in a few more general forums to see if this is a generic issue or something that I'll have to take in to get inspected at a garage. The best suggestion that I've had is to have a go at changing the gearbox oil, whilst this seems unlikely to sort out the banging from 2nd gear it could potentially aid the dull metal noise. Does anyone have any input on this?

It's probably worth noting that the car drives fine, I've had the car for almost 2 years now and I've not noticed a change in how it drives - there's just a horrific noise coming from the gearbox.

I'll try to get a video and audio of it at a later date but any input/suggestions would be massively appreciated!

Thanks!

I've never considered that the family of manual gearboxes fitted to especially the 6C version of Polo 1.2TSI were "the real thing", I'd think that the majority, during their service life, will end up being rebuilt as in repaired or rebuilt as in a bid to rectify many of their original build issues.

I think that they are appalling, and I've been driving my wife's August 2015 Polo 1.2TSI 110PS 6MT from new - you could probably add into that discussion the clutch assembly as well.

Edit:- I think that you should let a gearbox specialist have a look/hear of it instead of wasting time changing the oil, it would be better if they witnessed what came out, if anything, with the oil, so that they could work out the way forward.

RUM4MO wrote: Fri May 14, 2021 10:18 am I've never considered that the family of manual gearboxes fitted to especially the 6C version of Polo 1.2TSI were "the real thing", I'd think that the majority, during their service life, will end up being rebuilt as in repaired or rebuilt as in a bid to rectify many of their original build issues.

I think that they are appalling, and I've been driving my wife's August 2015 Polo 1.2TSI 110PS 6MT from new - you could probably add into that discussion the clutch assembly as well.

Edit:- I think that you should let a gearbox specialist have a look/hear of it instead of wasting time changing the oil, it would be better if they witnessed what came out, if anything, with the oil, so that they could work out the way forward.

Seems like you can't win with these, notoriously s**t DSG boxes and seemingly less s**t but still s**t manual boxes.

Thanks for the reply, that's very logical. I'll see what I can get sorted on pay day.

ysl7 wrote: Fri May 14, 2021 10:39 am Seems like you can't win with these, notoriously s**t DSG boxes and seemingly less s**t but still s**t manual boxes.

Thanks for the reply, that's very logical. I'll see what I can get sorted on pay day.

Have you got an idea if you're going to replace the gearbox or have it rebuilt and looked into any quotes?

JiSingh1 wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 8:34 pm

ysl7 wrote: Fri May 14, 2021 10:39 am Seems like you can't win with these, notoriously s**t DSG boxes and seemingly less s**t but still s**t manual boxes.

Thanks for the reply, that's very logical. I'll see what I can get sorted on pay day.

Have you got an idea if you're going to replace the gearbox or have it rebuilt and looked into any quotes?

For now, I'm keeping an eye on it and weighing up my options.

I've done about 150 miles since writing this post and kept a keen ear out. I've also been out in an A1 of the same year and same spec to see if it's similar.

Gear selection on mine feels a lot crunchier than the A1. The noise when selecting a gear (metallic rattling) seems normal and 2nd gear selection doesn't make the clunk.

I'm going to take it down to a specialist for them to have a look at in two weeks time - in the mean time I've been speaking to a mate who works at a garage for pricing on a new box. I've been advised to get a 2nd hand one rather than going through VW. It's seemingly going to be £150-£300 for the new box and another couple of hundred in labour..... ouch.

I'm hoping it's something simple like the synchros being a bit dodgy. I'd rather spend a couple of hundred than close to a grand- but we'll see. I'm not too keen to keep this car for much longer