What caused my 2nd gear to crunch.

Today, driving along , chaged down from 3rd into 2nd and crunch. This continued to happen every time, until it just would not go into 2nd gear at all. So stopped the car, played around with gear stick, set off, and nothing, no cruching of 2nd gear, no problem getting into 2nd gear.
The question is, what happened? was it clutch related or gear box? will it come back? and if someone knows what the problem is, how much to fix it.
1998 Passat 1.8 saloon.

2nd gear syncro failure does happen a lot on VW boxes and is a complete strip down to fix. Try changing the oil to Red Line MTL first and see how it goes.

Okay, thanks, I will have a look at that.
Anyone had this stripdown done? what are we looking at in terms of cost, just in case.

Was quoted £1000 by a Volkswagen Retailer or £800 by a gearbox specialist. A new genuine Volkswagen Gearbox is £2400

Gee wiz, nearly more than the cars worth then?
Thanks for the info anyway, I will be trying the oil recommended before.