ALH 5-spd swap

RedDragon

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 28, 2011
Location
Montgomery , IL
TDI
'11 JSW “Judy Sue White”
So my auto trans life is coming to an end finally. Can i get some Pros and Cons to doing this swap? Please help!!! I need direct Pros and Cons. Thanks!!!
 
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03Springer

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2003
Location
Southern Nevada
TDI
2003 Golf GL+ 2013 A3 TDI
Pros's to swap to a 5 speed:
Cheaper than a 01M
Bullet proof (as compared to the 01M)
Better MPG's

Cons:
Will take a little time and effort to accomplish
You will have to shift from 1-5
 

oswegoPD

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 30, 2009
Location
Oswego,IL
TDI
2014 Passat TSI, 2013 Passat 6M sold, 2012 Jetta Premium DSG sold, 2004 Jetta GL 5M (sold)
Jasontdr in Madison has done a bunch of these. I highly recommend him.
 

Kraiger

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2010
Location
Lima, Oh
TDI
11 Golf
Get a 6 speed kit from ryanp on here. A couple hundred more than a 5 speed but now that i have one id never go back. And od go with a south bend clutch.
 

JFettig

Vendor
Joined
Aug 18, 2010
Location
Blaine, MN
TDI
B5 Passat, 2010 Jetta
Get a 6 speed kit from ryanp on here. A couple hundred more than a 5 speed but now that i have one id never go back. And od go with a south bend clutch.
Couple thousand you mean? :confused:

To the OP - there are many other threads about this topic, this is not the right section for this question either.
 

Whitbread

Vendor , w/Business number
Joined
Jan 21, 2007
Location
Johannesburg, MI
TDI
Several
I paid about $850 for the 5spd swap I did.
Then you got lucky. Very rarely do I see a 5 spd swap kit go for for less than $1200 plus a clutch.

For a 5 speed with a decent clutch ($475, SBC stage 2 daily w/smf), new cv boots, and new trans seals, you're right around $1800 give or take in parts. I'd also HIGHLY recommend welding the roll pin that holds the cross shaft in and putting in an ARP ring gear stud kit. That's another $100 for the stud kit and at least 4-5 hours of time for a first timer. While you're doing that, might as well add a taller 5th gear. Now you're at about $2300.

IMO, you're far better off doing a 6 speed swap from RyanP. You'll get better gearing with lower highway rpms, MUCH stronger transmission, larger axles, and a larger clutch. Generally the 6 speeds also have lower miles on them as cars seem to head to the scrapyard much earlier than here.

For a 6 speed swap, you're at approx $1750 for kit from Ryan with new cv boots and bolts, $620 for a Valeo SMF clutch kit (installed lots, customers love them), new trans seals, and $70 braided SS clutch line from USP Motorsports, you're at approx $2500.

On the 02M's, they really need the rivets fixed in the shift forks. Don't need the ring gear bolt kit or cross pin welded. These have 12 ring gear rivets compared to 8 for the 02J. Should take no more than 1-2 hours to punch the shift rail rivets out and replace with bolts, and won't cost you anything if you already have a M8 tap and some cap screws laying around.


There you go, you're now at a $200 difference between doing a 6 speed swap or a 5 speed swap with the very popular 5th gear swap.


I do four 6 speed swaps for every one 5 speed swap I do.
 

JFettig

Vendor
Joined
Aug 18, 2010
Location
Blaine, MN
TDI
B5 Passat, 2010 Jetta
I didn't realize that the 02M kit from ryan was so cheap!

If you have time and can shop around, you can get lucky like I did. I almost ended up with a $500 swap but he needed that trans for a diff project and had to swap cases on this one and did some seals and whatnot.

Jon
 

spartan

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 25, 2011
Location
MI
TDI
05 Passat Wagon
ryan p charges 1575 pounds for his 6 speeds swap not dollars, that alone is $2500. It is not a $1750 starting price.
 

Whitbread

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Joined
Jan 21, 2007
Location
Johannesburg, MI
TDI
Several
ryan p charges 1575 pounds for his 6 speeds swap not dollars, that alone is $2500. It is not a $1750 starting price.
I just looked in his thread and it's 1250 pounds, not 1575. It used to be 1100 pounds and that's what i quoted which worked out to $1750 USD; 1250 GBP is an even $2K USD right now. That's a negligible cost difference in a project this size.


All this info rocks!!!! So what is the price of a new auto trans for a ALH?
Last I heard they were a little over $4k from VW.
 

spartan

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 25, 2011
Location
MI
TDI
05 Passat Wagon
Not if you need the auto to manual parts like the OP does. That price is 1575 pounds.
 

Whitbread

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Joined
Jan 21, 2007
Location
Johannesburg, MI
TDI
Several
Not if you need the auto to manual parts like the OP does. That price is 1575 pounds.
The only parts you need that aren't in Ryan's kit are a clutch pedal, line, and bleeder fitting (if Ryan didn't leave it on the trans, he usually does). The slave cylinder will come with your clutch kit.

I pick up clutch pedals all day long off vortex/e bay/car-part for $50 or less (got one off ebay recently for $17!). Braided SS clutch line is $70 from USP Motorsports, bleeder block is $15 from VW. That's less than $150 in parts worst case. I've done over 30 auto-manual swaps so I'm VERY familiar with the job.
 
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LukeWilson

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 27, 2010
Location
Ottawa, ON
TDI
Toyota 4x4 TDI, 2004 Allroad TDI
I think your dying trans will last 15 minutes if you were thinking about installing the performance package before doing the 5-speed swap. Do the manual trans swap and get everything else on the car into tip-top shape before you start up-ing the power.

When you do the trans swap, put in a beefy clutch as many others have suggested. That is the only thing in the kit that would have any relation to the trans swap. The turbo and nozzles can be done easily afterwards.

My $0.02.
 

RedDragon

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 28, 2011
Location
Montgomery , IL
TDI
'11 JSW “Judy Sue White”
I think your dying trans will last 15 minutes if you were thinking about installing the performance package before doing the 5-speed swap. Do the manual trans swap and get everything else on the car into tip-top shape before you start up-ing the power.

When you do the trans swap, put in a beefy clutch as many others have suggested. That is the only thing in the kit that would have any relation to the trans swap. The turbo and nozzles can be done easily afterwards.

My $0.02.
No i wasnt going to add anything till the auto was dead. So basically do a tune up on it? Check hoses belts ect... ve heard the term Stage 0 used before would that be correct to use?

I didnt even think about that, everything else is outside the trans.
 

kcfoxie

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 6, 2007
Location
Raleigh, NC
TDI
'12 6-spd JSW
I did this to my 2003. My transmission was from my wrecked 1998 with 278 (I say 280)k miles on it. I have over 10k miles on the swap to date.

I bought this car and did all the suggested upkeep to the auto and drove from NC to New Mexico for the New Beetle GTG and averaged a pitiful 38mpg for the trip. Looking at logs the best highway tank was just shy of 46mpg, the 98 I was replacing tgot 42-43 in the city and 48-55 on the highway -- the last 6 highway trips had all been 52 or better MPG before the wreck.

This was not acceptable. I averaged about 34 in town.

After the swap you can check my fuelly... 42 is the average. I dropped to 38 at the end of the winter, needing a fuel filter change (this was made more evident after I flashed the car with performance software). I drove with all the windows down at 65 to/from Greensboro and got 48.6 (49.1 if I didn't "top up" with the extra .10 gallon)... with the sunroof shut (my 98 didn't have a sunroof) I bet I could have bested 50mpg on that trip.

I'm hoping to go to Mississippi this May and have a goal of avg speed 61mph and avg mpg of 54mpg (758 miles one-way).

So, based on this alone, if you clock decent mileage you will recoup the swap costs in about 2-3 years time. Less if you do a lot of highway traveling.

Plus a manual TDI will always carry a better resell value, because the autos will get scrapped and these will still be around.

Next upgrade is a taller 5th gear.
 

RedDragon

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 28, 2011
Location
Montgomery , IL
TDI
'11 JSW “Judy Sue White”
I did this to my 2003. My transmission was from my wrecked 1998 with 278 (I say 280)k miles on it. I have over 10k miles on the swap to date.

I bought this car and did all the suggested upkeep to the auto and drove from NC to New Mexico for the New Beetle GTG and averaged a pitiful 38mpg for the trip. Looking at logs the best highway tank was just shy of 46mpg, the 98 I was replacing tgot 42-43 in the city and 48-55 on the highway -- the last 6 highway trips had all been 52 or better MPG before the wreck.

This was not acceptable. I averaged about 34 in town.

After the swap you can check my fuelly... 42 is the average. I dropped to 38 at the end of the winter, needing a fuel filter change (this was made more evident after I flashed the car with performance software). I drove with all the windows down at 65 to/from Greensboro and got 48.6 (49.1 if I didn't "top up" with the extra .10 gallon)... with the sunroof shut (my 98 didn't have a sunroof) I bet I could have bested 50mpg on that trip.

I'm hoping to go to Mississippi this May and have a goal of avg speed 61mph and avg mpg of 54mpg (758 miles one-way).

So, based on this alone, if you clock decent mileage you will recoup the swap costs in about 2-3 years time. Less if you do a lot of highway traveling.

Plus a manual TDI will always carry a better resell value, because the autos will get scrapped and these will still be around.

Next upgrade is a taller 5th gear.

Thanks for adding that.:)
 

kcfoxie

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 6, 2007
Location
Raleigh, NC
TDI
'12 6-spd JSW
Only if you want to spin 3500 rpms down the highway in 5th...
It'll bolt up but the gearing is wrong. You could get a taller 5th gear to install in that gas trans to get the hwy fuel economy... but... I'd try and find a diesel transmission.
 

kcfoxie

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 6, 2007
Location
Raleigh, NC
TDI
'12 6-spd JSW
Yeah, the gears. It's common to do a taller 5th mod and sell your stock gear to a 2.0/1.8t owner who wants better highway fuel economy... cause the TDI 5th is taller than their stock gearing.
 
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