New 5 speed with LOWER gears?

[Blachermeier]

So I installed a new SBC Endurance clutch and a used 5 speed gear box from a donor vehicle. The car runs and drives great however it seems it revs way higher than it used to with the original 5 speed tranny. Did they offer these 5 speed manual transmissions with different gear options? The clutch is not slipping and besides the high revs at highways speeds is working like new. Here are the RPM’s at highway


3,250 @70mph
3,500 @ 75mph

it’s an 06 TDI Jetta BRM

 

[Mozambiquer]

So I installed a new SBC Endurance clutch and a used 5 speed gear box from a donor vehicle. The car runs and drives great however it seems it revs way higher than it used to with the original 5 speed tranny. Did they offer these 5 speed manual transmissions with different gear options? The clutch is not slipping and besides the high revs at highways speeds is working like new. Here are the RPM’s at highway


3,250 @70mph
3,500 @ 75mph

it’s an 06 TDI Jetta BRM

You're in the B5 Passat section, it would be best if you posted in the mk5 Jetta section, though I'll get a moderator to move this. @nicklockard
What was the donor car you got the transmission from? A TDI, or a gasser? What transmission code was it?

 

[Rx7145]

Sounds like you got a transmission from a gas car. You could put the high gear set in fifth for hi-way use.

 

[TurboABA]

02Js could be had with various final drives.... what engine code donor did you swap with?
EBF should be 3.389 final drive
EBD should be 4.235 final drive
EBQ should be 3.938 final drive
etc....

 

[Blachermeier]

I was told it was an 06 BRM that it was from but can’t really prove. Wasn’t sure if I could pull numbers from the transmission or if I could tell by MPH vs RPM.. so the 5 speed gas transmissions look identical? The one I replaced matches my stock one by looks exactly

 

[TurboABA]

There will be code letters stamped on the case... Check on side of the diff case.

 

[TurboABA]

 

[Blachermeier]

Thanks for the photos. I pulled the numbers off and it’s a 0A4 301. From what I saw online this was from a gas VW. Now I need to figure out if I can change the 5th gear out to make it work well at high way speeds or if the other 4 gears are to low as well? Car has PD150 turbo, stage 2 Cam, and other goodies so it has plenty of power.

 

[Blachermeier]

The other numbers I pulled off it are
GQQ 31055
64 0632

Now I’m even more confused as I read the gear ratio is based on GQQ code which shows it’s from an 06 TDI Jetta..?

 

[TurboABA]

GQQ should be correct.
Check your speedo vs GPS for speed. I suspect the speedo drive gear may be different and you're not travelling at the reported speed

VW Tranny Code Chart

Source for VW transaxle rebiult units, technical info.

www.zelek.com

 

[TurboABA]

So much for that theory about different speedo gears... They all seem to be 0.591... check with GPS anyways just for curiousity

 

[Rx7145]

Would be a good drag car with those gears.

 

[TurboABA]

I bet someone had already done a 5th gear swap in your old tranny and now that you're running stock gear, you have the shortest option.

5th gear swap on VW manual transmission

5th gear swap to reduce rpm on VW

www.myturbodiesel.com

 

[Blachermeier]

GPS says the car reads about 4.5mph faster than GPS. Cars at 60mph but GPS says 55.4MPH

 

[Blachermeier]

I bought the car with 100K on it and it was completely stock per the owner but if not and these are the correct gears… these TDI’s are supposed to turn 3,200rpm at 65mph? Just seems odd and don’t recall that the last 200k miles I put on it. It was a couple weeks since I drove it during the tranny swap. Makes me think I’m losing my mind. I’ll be cleaning up the original trans today and excited to pull the codes from that one

 

[TurboABA]

I vote for you've lost your mind!

The only scenario that works with the values you're providing is you were in 4th gear, not 5th.

Or you have 2x 4th gear, which isn't only impossible, but I would expect you as a driver to notice that there's no gearing change between a 4th to 5th shift.

 

[TurboABA]

these TDI’s are supposed to turn 3,200rpm at 65mph?

I don't have one in order to confirm for you, but the math says they should be doing 2400 rpm in 5th @ 65mph with stock gear\wheel combo.
Hopefully another user with this setup chimes in to validate this.

 

[Rrusse11]

John Maher Racing » GEAR RATIO CALCULATOR

johnmaherracing.com

Blachermeier,

The above calculator is VERY handy for calculating speed vs rpm. Plug in your parameters and you'll get an
accurate result. I used it when choosing my 5th gear change, I eventually ended up with a .717 final ratio,
works great for me. Don't be tempted to go to low, I started with a .656, but found the rpm drop from
4th to 5th was simply too much for the power band. Be aware that changing tire diameter is also a
contributing factor in the overall equation.

There's quite an extensive thread on the various ratios and where to obtain the gears in the MkIV forums.

 

[Blachermeier]

I’ll have to keep researching but I did a test in each gear to try and figure out what gears are in it.. based on the info below almost every gear is off from factory…? So replacing just the 5th seems not like a great choice.


@2,000 RPM using GPS
Reverse- 9mph “roughly. Hard to get”
1st-9mph
2nd-16mph
3rd-25mph
4th-33mph
5th-41mph

 

[TurboABA]

What is the tire size?

 

[turbocharged798]

I wonder if someone stuck in a gasser 5th gear. What's the RPMs in 4th?

 

[Blachermeier]

What is the tire size?

205/55-16

 

[TurboABA]

Well that's interesting.... the only combo that I can come up with based on all this info and based on published info that I've run across is this:

5-speed 0A4
JCU 4.235 Final Drive
2.0 l - 85 kW
Jetta 2005 ▸, Bora 2006 ▸
Golf Variant 2007 ▸ Bora Sportwagen 2008 ▸

Gear Ratios:
1st: 3.778 = 9.26 mph
2nd: 2.063 = 16.96 mph
3rd: 1.360 = 25.73 mph
4th: .967 = 36.19 mph
5th: .769 = 45.51 mph

The small variations in 4th and 5th can easily be accepted by uncontrolled parameters, accuracy of your GPS, grade, data sampling rate, etc.
These are all based on theoretical measurements (aka MATH) as well, so small variations in wheel diameter as a result of inflation pressures, wear, etc. will still make the values funky.

All that being said, it almost seems like you have a gasser transmission, but that doesn't explain the codes that you're getting off your unit (unless you're looking at what you pulled out instead of what you put in)...... so maybe someone has swapped guts or something?

Try calling a dealer or someone with access to ETKA to run the codes\vin and get the correct gear ratios from VW.

 

[Blachermeier]

The gear code GQQ is on both transmissions I have. I appreciate all the help and really think they must have swapped the guts out with those from a gas version. I can’t explain it any other way. I’ll probably just end up swapping back over to my stock transmission since changing just the 5th isn’t going to do much

 

[TurboABA]

I can't imagine why anyone would do that.
I'd triple check everything and contact VW to get the alleged ratios off the exact trannies you have.

 

[turbodieseldyke]

@2,000 RPM using GPS
1st-9mph
2nd-16mph
3rd-25mph
4th-33mph
5th-41mph

That's a 2007 JDQ, according to Zelek's chart and John Maher's calculator.

Maybe someone had a JDQ with a cracked case and good guts, and a GQQ with bad guts and a good case, and swapped everything around.

 

[TurboABA]

That's a 2007 JDQ, according to Zelek's chart and John Maher's calculator.

It would be if we were talking about 02J but the OP said he had a 0A4 instead.

 

[turbodieseldyke]

Plug the ratios for JDQ into that calculator, and you'll match his 2000rpm GPS figures for each gear 1-5. Maybe it's a diff tranny code, but those are the gears. Bottom line, it's a gasser all the way.

 

[TurboABA]

Agree... I just checked all of them and those ratios reduce the differences that I had above with an "off-the-shelf" box.
He's got a Frankenstein box!

 

[TurboABA]

It also checks within 2mph of this rpm\speeds posted in post #1