Gearbox/ clutch oil problems

[A Senna]

Hi everyone,

Last night was driving and heard this wierd noise from the gearbox it has been doing it for a few weeks now, but then suddenly smelt gearbox oil, and lost drive as if the clutch was gone, oil started to poor out of the clutch plate between the gearbox and block deffinatlly gearbox oil as it was green,
Any suggestions? may it be the input shaft seal?:aargh4::aargh4::aargh4:

[Crasher]

You don't say what your engine is but I think it will have the 020 rod shift box (there are three distinctly different manual boxes used in the Golf 3) and what you describe is the common failure of a differential rivet which has punched it's way out of the box from inside, which as you can imagine is quite serious.

[A Senna]

its the AGG engine, can it be really that serious it will still ingauge gears and will drive tho

[Crasher]

The AGG engined Golf 3 (presuming it is a GTI), uses a CHE or DFQ box between 7/95 and 12/97 and these boxes are 020 series. What you have described is classic differential rivet failure and totally undrivable failure is very close as the box will seize due to a lack of oil. In a few exceptional cases I have even known the box to completely lock solid all of a sudden when driving, locking the front wheels instantly and bringing the car to a dead halt in the road making it totally unmovable without a front suspended tow. When the rivet(s) fails, it punches its way through the box, at the very least making a hole from the inside of the bell housing which pours out oil all over the clutch and can even result in the main case of the box splitting. In both cases, you will be better to find a good used box as rebuilding yours will be prohibitively expensive.

[A Senna]

Visibly looking by eye there is no holes or anything in the bell housing. is it possible that the shaft seal may of come out?
It has done 160K. so if it is that which has gone its done bloody well LOL

[Crasher]

The hole will be inside the bell housing. Failure of the input shaft oil seal is extremely rare but I have seen the clutch pushrod seal fail due to wear of the support bushing. However, failure of either of these seals will not case a loss of drive in themselves (only destruction of the box due to oil loss) but whatever has happened the box is dead and will have to come out and be rebuilt or replaced, there is no alternative. If a diff rivet has failed and holed the bell housing (what VW term the clutch housing) this can sometimes be welded but it is magnesium which is tricky to weld. If both main box sections are damaged (a cracked gear casing as in the picture) the box is beyond economic repair and you will have to find a used replacement.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd20/Crasher1964/DSC_0006.jpg

[A Senna]

Well, got it checked out today the clutch push rod seal has worn and caused gearbox oil to leak in, gearbox diff etc bell housing all ok....

[Crasher]

So it has lost drive due to oil on the clutch. The bush inside the input shaft will also need replacing.