RomeoNovember

Newbie
Points
1
Location
UK
Car
Octavia 2.0 TDI VRS
My DSG box has developed a whine in 5th gear that sounds a bit like the motor of an underground train, especially on deceleration. My box works great. 20K ago I changed the fluid. What came out was like white wine. There were no particles, bits or metal. I was very impressed. I put new oil in but uprated the standard to a premium third party solution by Millers Oils which is made for DSG and for DCT transmissions. No problems. Mechatronic is fine. Gear changes are fine. Full throttle response is fine. Full throttle response in manual mode is astonishing. I think that 'kickdown' switch operates somewhat differently in manual mode. Its a serious push back. Manually changing gear from 2 to 1 is never great so I just don't do it. But it seems this is the same for everyone. I'm gentle on the gearbox. I always let it properly engage before putting my foot on accelerator. I remember when I first got the car, having driven full autos this was something I had to adjust in my driving style. So, If I'm going to leap, I let the box fully engage to roll forward then floor it.

The whine is not to do with any particular driving style but might be influenced by heat. I recently found my thermostat is opening too soon, and that might mean that water cooling the oil cooler is too cool. It might be delaying the box getting to full operating temperature. The soundis more noticeable when the engine is cold. It comes in as soon as the box selects 5th, it is slightly more pronounced on deceleration. It is slightly noticeable in 6th but by the time the engine has properly warmed up, the whine in 5th is reduced to slight and in 6th its barely perceptible. I sought the opinion of various tranmission workshops and invariably they told me my gearbox was worn out, that my cogs, shafts and bearing were knackered, that it was in various states of terminal decline or iminent explosion and I needed to get it done urgently or I risk putting a gear shaft out through the side of the gearbox and even writing off my engine. It sounded quite shocking. But as I have driven on, at first very gingerly, it does not actually seem to be getting worse and if the car is hot its really hardly there at all. I've come to feel that its not about to imminently explode, but of course, having just written this, the liklihood is much increased! I've done 150K miles, so obviously I realise there will be wear & tear, but given the state of the oil that came out of the box I'm suspicious these transmission shops are over-selling the need for a £1700+VAT job. I'd rather just get to learn the potential causes of this kind of noise relating to a specific gear and judging from readers here what the best approach is. One shop told me its just a bearing and it commonly makes a noise but to replace it the transmission does have to be opened. That shop seemed honest and did go on to say that once one has got that far its best to replace all the worn parts and all the bearings because the extra cost involved is relatively minimal.

I'm interested to hear from TorqueCars members who have a similar noise going on with their DSG. Not crunchy bearings or scraping noises or sounds of metal pieces in a can, but just this whine of an underground train decelerating! If you sometimes can hear very faint noise of something like a sweet wrapper being thrown around inside a can or a piece of paper touching a fan, at mid road speed (difficult to hear above say 60mph), best chance to hear is on a piece of super smooth tarmac - the silent stuff at between 40-50mph, I'd like to hear about that too. Its fascinating stuff. Clearly distinguishing what is terminal and what is not is best achieved, not perhaps by asking those with an interest in doing some work at £100-£150 an hour, but you guys here who actually drive the DSG.
 

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