03 5 speed DMF Failure i believe??

Hey guys, I have recently noticed that it has gotten really hard to get into gear when cruising, i used to be able to only use 1 finger and now I have to use force, I also noticed that it grinds going into to reverse. I believe the issue is that the DMF is starting to fail and the clutch is stock, it has 230k on it, here are some of the symtons

The car vibrates more
Struggling to get into gear,it finds the gear each time but much more force is needed
It seems like the clutch is not disengaging anymore properly

Are these all sings of a bad DMF? I ordered a Luk Clutch kit with a regular flywheel because Ive been wanting to change the clutch anyway on the car. The car will remain stock so i am not worried about getting a better clutch. Thanks for the help guys

Well, based on your description of the symptoms and the beefy signature line, I believe your assumptions are correct. But, there may be more, such as worn throw-out bearing and clutch fork which may explain, in part, the difficulty you are experiencing changing gears.

The DMF and clutch were basically fine in my 2000 Jetta at 291k miles when I changed it while doing a front suspension refresh. It was probably good for another 50k miles or more.

Worn CV joints can cause vibration on acceleration. When is yours vibrating?

There are several replacement options..... do some shopping.

If you're going to replace it make sure you do the pivot pin and clip. You do not want to pull the transmission to replace less than $25 in parts. Also the throw out bearing and I would do the clutch arm, just because I hate to redo stuff.



Dieselgeek has a shifter bushing set if yours has never been replaced. That might be the place to look at also.


https://www.dieselgeek.com/collecti...bushing-kit-for-mk4-golf-jetta-gti-new-beetle



As Andy says worn CV joints can cause vibrations also.

With that tune the DMF will never survive. I had RC4 VNT17-22 and PP520's when I went to a solid steel flywheel. When we got the transmission out the DMF had permanent deformation so we had to pry to get the mounting bolts lined up.

Curious Chris said:

With that tune the DMF will never survive. I had RC4 VNT17-22 and PP520's when I went to a solid steel flywheel. When we got the transmission out the DMF had permanent deformation so we had to pry to get the mounting bolts lined up.

Click to expand...

What tune? He lists the vehicle as having a stock tune.

ToxicDoc said:

What tune? He lists the vehicle as having a stock tune.

Click to expand...

The car is stock guys, that was my old tdi, this is my 03. Stock to the bone

There are other items that can indirectly affect shifting, vibrations, odd sounds, and possibly other things. This includes worn engine or transmission mounts, shift cable bushings, and shifter bushings (Diesel Geek). Even clutch feel and sounds can be affected. Check the easy things first before you remove the transmission.

When my DMF went out, I was experiencing symptoms similar to slow down shudder, and you could hear a slight rattle when in neutral that went away when pressing the clutch. Easy way to tell if its going out, pull your timing plug off your trans, you shouldn't be able to move the pressure plate separately from the flywheel with light pressure.

Nero Morg said:

When my DMF went out, I was experiencing symptoms similar to slow down shudder, and you could hear a slight rattle when in neutral that went away when pressing the clutch. Easy way to tell if its going out, pull your timing plug off your trans, you shouldn't be able to move the pressure plate separately from the flywheel with light pressure.

Click to expand...

And the clutch swap made the rattle go away? I have a deep sounding rattle in neutral that goes away with the clutch pushed in. Been like that for probably 8K miles so far.

I have a DMF set to replace it with, one of these days.

flashmayo said:

And the clutch swap made the rattle go away? I have a deep sounding rattle in neutral that goes away with the clutch pushed in. Been like that for probably 8K miles so far.

I have a DMF set to replace it with, one of these days.

Click to expand...

Yeah it did. Whole point of the DMF was to make it quieter. I switched to a valeo smf swap from a 1.8t and I had very minor gear rollover noise, like you really had to listen for it. But with my stage 2 it's slips easily. Honestly if you're going to put the effort into changing the flywheel I'd suggest just going to a SMF swap instead. But don't get valeo brand lol