tactdi
Veteran Member
As I was driving home, and about a block from the house, I hear a big loud clunk/pop, like I hit a deep pot hole or ran over a 2x4. I stopped and looked at the front left wheel, which is were I felt the clunk, saw nothing wrong with the wheel, and looked under the car, and saw no oil leaking.
Drove the rest of the way home, and I could feel something wrong with the clutch and how the car drove and steered. Then I got home and parked the car, now there was oil running out of the underbody engine cover, looked and smelled like gear oil. Since I was dark, I put some cardboard under the car to catch the oil and knew I would have to look at it the next morning.
Transmission has 200K, car has 343K.
Overnight I was thinking it could have pulled out a CV joint, and the oil was from that joint. When I looked at the car the next day, the CV joints were dry where they bolt to the transmission, so after putting the car on jack stands, and removing the underbody engine cover, there was oil dripping out of the transmission where it bolts to the engine.
After some quick searches on TDIClub, I found a few threads that talked about the differential getting loose and putting a hole inside the bell housing.
After removing the transmission from the car, I found the source of the oil leak, the disk covering a shaft inside the bell housing had fallen off. The clutch is dry, so the oil just got the transmission bell housing wet. There is a lot of silver specs in the oil, so the effort to open the transmission and try to fix it, does not sound like a viable repair, so now I am looking for a replacement transmission.
The rest of the story.
About a week before, I was driving down the highway following a pickup truck. The truck had more ground clearance than my Jetta, and it drove over a ladder that was sitting in the middle of the highway!!! I had no where to go, it was too close to swerve to avoid, so I started to brake. My impulse was to try to drive over the ladder, so I released the brake, and the ladder caught the underside plastic engine cover, and I started to drag the ladder.
If I had kept my foot on the brake, the ladder would have hit my front bumper, so at least I saved that body part. I was able to pull off to the side of the road, and pull the ladder out from under the car. After checking for leaks and suspension damage, everything looked OK. The plastic cover was damaged, and was torn, and the car drove fine.
Not sure if the impact from the ladder caused the transmission to break a week later, just seems like a coincidence. Not that it really matters, since I now have to source out a transmission.
Drove the rest of the way home, and I could feel something wrong with the clutch and how the car drove and steered. Then I got home and parked the car, now there was oil running out of the underbody engine cover, looked and smelled like gear oil. Since I was dark, I put some cardboard under the car to catch the oil and knew I would have to look at it the next morning.
Transmission has 200K, car has 343K.
Overnight I was thinking it could have pulled out a CV joint, and the oil was from that joint. When I looked at the car the next day, the CV joints were dry where they bolt to the transmission, so after putting the car on jack stands, and removing the underbody engine cover, there was oil dripping out of the transmission where it bolts to the engine.
After some quick searches on TDIClub, I found a few threads that talked about the differential getting loose and putting a hole inside the bell housing.
After removing the transmission from the car, I found the source of the oil leak, the disk covering a shaft inside the bell housing had fallen off. The clutch is dry, so the oil just got the transmission bell housing wet. There is a lot of silver specs in the oil, so the effort to open the transmission and try to fix it, does not sound like a viable repair, so now I am looking for a replacement transmission.
The rest of the story.
About a week before, I was driving down the highway following a pickup truck. The truck had more ground clearance than my Jetta, and it drove over a ladder that was sitting in the middle of the highway!!! I had no where to go, it was too close to swerve to avoid, so I started to brake. My impulse was to try to drive over the ladder, so I released the brake, and the ladder caught the underside plastic engine cover, and I started to drag the ladder.
If I had kept my foot on the brake, the ladder would have hit my front bumper, so at least I saved that body part. I was able to pull off to the side of the road, and pull the ladder out from under the car. After checking for leaks and suspension damage, everything looked OK. The plastic cover was damaged, and was torn, and the car drove fine.
Not sure if the impact from the ladder caused the transmission to break a week later, just seems like a coincidence. Not that it really matters, since I now have to source out a transmission.