06 jetta DSG Quit moving

Was driving a customers 06 jetta DSG and the trans quit moving entirely. I had a feeling it was the flywheel, and when I pulled the trans out I found....



Splines where the input shaft ride were completely stripped.



Here's the trans input shaft splines.. a little "roughed up" but ok.




Here's the splines on the new flywheel.




This was an expensive repair but better than a new trans! (which of course wouldn't have fixed it)

Edit: 5-5-16 guy called me from texas today and said his quit moving so I was thinking of how this could be confirmed. I think if someone watched the measuring blocks they could see the input shaft spinning or not spinning. If the flywheel splines are stripped then the input shaft speed sensor probably would show zero. So at idle the input speed sensor should basically match engine RPM. Never confirmed this but I will on the next DSG I drive.

A little bit of moly lube seems in order... Seen unsecured splines fail, but it is real random. Sometimes they live, a few times they wear. That's my best technical explanation!

Usually when cars are taken to a mechanic they "cannot replicate customer concern" or something like that! LOL Getting stranded when it fails while the mechanic is driving - what are the odds?

I am familiar with a standard disk clutch, but this looks very different. So the DSG crankshaft doesn't have a flange to bolt the flywheel to, just splines? I'll have to look for a diagram. I have heard Diesels have a rough power rotation...

Ski in NC said:

A little bit of moly lube seems in order... Seen unsecured splines fail, but it is real random. Sometimes they live, a few times they wear. That's my best technical explanation!

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Yes, but I think the splines strip because the flywheel rattles around for months ignored.

Had this too. Moly on the splines is very necessary. Happens to BMW motorcycles....BTDT.

I just had this happend to mine, less than one week after I did a PD140 upgrade with a tune.

Question...can you buy just that input cover or am I going to have to buy an entire assembly?

No expert but the shaft runs all the way back through the two hollow input shafts to drive the oil pump. Doubt if one could just slide the shaft out and slide a new one in.

The "input shaft" is part of the clutch assembly kit. Usually, most of the spline damage is done to the female side, so the flywheel itself. But, there will be some damage on the male side. How much? Tough to say unless you slip a new flywheel on and see if it wiggles at all. And even then, without a new clutch to slip into the new flywheel, you may not easily be able to tell.

The other thing is if the pilot bearing is chewed up. I had one that was so bad I ended up having to drop the crankshaft out of the engine, bring it to our machine shop, and have them bore out the end and make a sleeve to press in, to give the new pilot bearing a good true surface to press in to.

This happens because the DMF was bad, and allowed to bang around back and forth for miles and miles, until it eventually beats the splines up to the point that they strip out. So usually the pilot bearing is also pretty beat up at the same time.

Just a reality check for me. I did the 5 speed manual clutch on my BRM and did not see a pilot bearing. Pleas tell me if this is normal or not for the 5 speed manuals.

Normal, I hope or the tranny will have to come back out................

Ol'Rattler said:

Just a reality check for me. I did the 5 speed manual clutch on my BRM and did not see a pilot bearing. Pleas tell me if this is normal or not for the 5 speed manuals.

Normal, I hope or the tranny will have to come back out................

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Normal. Input shaft does not extend far enough to reach a pilot bearing. Only for dsg's.

Thank you so much, that's what my feeble memory tels me. Now I can sleep at night.

Ol'Rattler said:

Thank you so much, that's what my feeble memory tels me. Now I can sleep at night.

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Yeah I had to look it up when i did the manual conversion from dsg. The old pilot bearing was toast. I couldn't remove the shell so I just left it there and installed the manual trans as-is.

seen three of these stripped as of 2-16-17. Flywheel fixed every one.

But I have seen the clutches snap ring pop apart a couple times now. One of them happened shortly after flywheel was replaced for stripped splines.

snap ring pops out you can tell because the "input shaft" will be sloppy in the hole. Trans of course will malfunction as well.

My input is definitely worn, definitely worn enough I will not put it back together like it is.

Now the problem, I cannot find anyone that will sell a used clutch assembly or just that front cover with the input. I may make have a custom input made up of some 300M material.

Anyone know of a place that sells a performance clutch back that sells with the whole assembly? I want to be able to hold up to 500ft/lbs since I do have upgrades.

SuperRunner said:

My input is definitely worn, definitely worn enough I will not put it back together like it is.
Now the problem, I cannot find anyone that will sell a used clutch assembly or just that front cover with the input. I may make have a custom input made up of some 300M material.
Anyone know of a place that sells a performance clutch back that sells with the whole assembly? I want to be able to hold up to 500ft/lbs since I do have upgrades.

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Only performance clutch sold is just clutches and steeles.

Oilhammer mentioned that the pilot bearing breaks up and the very next one I pulled apart is broken up.

Here's the broken up pilot bearing. If you look close you can see the splines are about 1/2 worn away on the flywheel. And for information sake replacing the flywheel wont fix this. The pilot bearing sits inside the crankshaft, but this one is replaceable I beleive without major work like OH had to do.



The shaft that rides in the pilot bearing is very worn. This is only avialable as part of the clutch assembly and will need the whole clutch assembly purchased to fix.



Edit: 3-30-17 This vehicle had this wear in addition to a mechatronics problem. 2 expensive problems made it an easy decision for the customer to opt for a 5 speed conversion. We finished this car, our first 5 speed conversion on a mk5 tdi yesterday. (we've done about 30 mk4 jetta's, golfs and beetles, and about 20 b5 passats)

CoolAirVw said:

Oilhammer mentioned that the pilot bearing breaks up and the very next one I pulled apart is broken up.

Here's the broken up pilot bearing. If you look close you can see the splines are about 1/2 worn away on the flywheel. And for information sake replacing the flywheel wont fix this. The pilot bearing sits inside the crankshaft, but this one is replaceable I beleive without major work like OH had to do.

The shaft that rides in the pilot bearing is very worn. This is only avialable as part of the clutch assembly and will need the whole clutch assembly purchased to fix.

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How many miles on that one?

jonferns said:

how many miles on that one?

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271,000