Transmission/Differential Problems

Hello,
I just picked a 2004 jetta tdi up and I am pretty sure there is some transmission/differential problems with it (I knew this before i bought the car, just picked it up for a lower price) but anyways the car will not drive. I am able to shift the car in and out of all the gears easily, but the car will not drive. If i were to let the clutch out, the car stalls and wont budge. When i first looked at the car, i was only able to move the car half a rotation of the wheels, but now that i have it home, for whatever reason, the car rolls when pushed. I am thinking that there must be something broken in the differential but im not exactly sure. Any thoughts?

Jack the front end up in the air - both wheels not touching anything. Leave the transaxle in gear. Spin one wheel. The other one should spin in the opposite direction. If it does, the differential is OK.

after that, and while still in the air, try and engage the clutch and see what happens

The wheels on an 02j will both spin in the same direction due to the 20% or so factory "limited slip"
if the diff gear center pin's roll pin is broken or has fallen out the center pin can slide out and lock against the inside of the trans case ...it can also slide back into place and free up ....temporarily

Okay, so with the front end of the car up, and transaxle in gear, I spun one wheel and the other does nothing. I am assuming the differential is the problem here..
Thanks for the quick replies

Could be- can you see the flange that the CV axle bolts into on the trans? Make sure that which ever wheel you turn, it turns everything on both sides. I've seen CV axles that fail internally that will spin in their boots...

-Rich

Everything going into the trans turns.. just not the two sides together.
Another pretty key piece of info i forgot to include was that the transmission is leaking fluid...

The diff blew, chances are one of the pins slid out. May even have a hole in the case, usually inside the bellhouse. You'll need a new one.

Am I better off getting a new diff, or just getting a rebuilt transmission?

Most likely the diff came apart and blew a hole in the case. Thats probably the reason you are leaking oil. I have heard of it happening before.

The diff and trans are all one piece. If the case has a hole in it you will need to get a whole new transmission.

You can read about this calamity here:

http://www.vwtransaxles.com/diff.html

--Nate

Is there any reason for this to happen, such as abuse or lack of maintenance? or is it just bad luck?
Also just to be certain, the 04 TDIs have the "o2j EUH" transmission right?
Any advice on dropping/replacing a transmission?

Yes, the '04 uses the 02J, subcode EUH. This failure can happen due to abuse, especially attemptig/doing burn outs and especially if the front wheels hop when doing this. It beats the crap out of the differential and its bearings. I suppose failure like this can happen without abuse as well. But abuse will cause failure.

I R & R'd my transaxle by using a homemade engine support. I removed the passenger side drive axle flange to clear the transaxle (drain gear oil first) and supported the transaxle using a $75 Harbor Freight transmission jack. Transaxle came out from underneath the car. Car up high on jack stands. I did this solo.




--Nate

ultrasparc said:

Most likely the diff came apart and blew a hole in the case. Thats probably the reason you are leaking oil. I have heard of it happening before.

The diff and trans are all one piece. If the case has a hole in it you will need to get a whole new transmission.

Click to expand...

Its not one piece, it comes apart. The only gotcha is that the diff bearings preload need to be reset if if the bearings or diff replaced.

I bet the spider cross pin walked out. This happens because a measly $0.50 roll pin shears off. The way to fix it is to double roll pin, meaning put a smaller roll pin inside the main one.

Depending if there is a hole in the case, A new roll pin could be the only thing this trans needs.

There is no seperate diff case, if the case is broke, it's broke. The whole transaxle is toast. Only the older VAG autoboxes used a seperate diff case from the planetary gearset case (010, 090, 087, 003, etc).

You can take the case halves apart and change/service/rebuild the diff, but if it came apart and broke the case it won't matter.

Good news is, Volkswagen doesn't care if the case is good or not for the reman units (most are new cases anyways), so just call your local dealer, tell them you need an 02J-300-049-MX or just find a good used EUH code gearbox. May be hard to find, since that is ONLY used behind the BEW engine, which was only sold here for a couple years.

"so just call your local dealer, tell them you need an 02J-300-049-MX "

I just checked this on 1stvwparts.com and its about $1650, with a $700 core charge.

I bought a used 02J EUH 4 years ago and I paid $1000 shipped to my door.

--Nate

you can also use EBJ, EGR, EGS codes in your car...the gearing is nearly identical....with only minor differences in the shifter attachments (ball vs pin) ....I've used all these transmissions interchangeably (along with the EUH) in ALH/BEW auto to manual swaps.....

Hey, so its been a couple weeks, but i finally found some time to drop the transmission and see whats up. Turns out, there is a hole about 4-5 inches tall and 1 inch wide in the casing of the bell housing in front of the diff. Out of that hole i could pull out a pin jammed in between two of the spider gears, (the pin was sheared in half) as well as one of the spider gears that is supposed to be mounted on this pin, also broke right in half. The amount of damage was actually pretty impressive.

Anyways, i picked up a used transmission from my local wreckers for $500. Came out of a 2002 (EGR trans code) and has 74600 miles on it. Put that in and the cars back together now running great!

Thanks for all the help and advice!

are you tellin that BEW pd engine and ALH trans are bolt on ? mine broke when abuse , ( was a lot of loose in differencial since long time ago ) and car making power steering pump sound when rooling but was not power steering lol

i have a blowed pd engine with manual trans on it A1 , maybe i can use it it was barely a gift under circumstance

jeffpepin said:

are you tellin that BEW pd engine and ALH trans are bolt on ? mine broke when abuse , ( was a lot of loose in differencial since long time ago ) and car making power steering pump sound when rooling but was not power steering lol

i have a blowed pd engine with manual trans on it A1 , maybe i can use it it was barely a gift under circumstance

Click to expand...

That is 8 years old thread .
Anyway your answer in Yes , all mk4 manual TDI are pretty much same , only 2000-2001 has different shiftier , but that can be swap if going to 2002+. or other way . On your 2003 , BEW transmission will go just fine.