[A4] Synchro Going?

[Jonathan]

Hi Dan,

My dad has a 5spd manual (2000 FWD, 1.8T) which can be funny on certain gears. 
In that case however it is more wear on the gear teeth than the synchro. In 
short, when you change gears you push the two gears together, so they start 
meshing at the very tips of the teeth and continue sliding together to their 
proper mesh distance. (As opposed to cheaper gear boxes where the reverse 
gear slides in from the side, hence the weiring sound when reversing). The 
teeth got crunched too many times (that was me learning to drive, an my 
mother still not knowing how to drive manuals) meaning the tips got flattened 
ever so slightly, making the alignment ever more crucial.

Without knowing your car, I can't say if that is your problem or not however.

As for replacing the synchro, my understanding of it is a series of bands (or 
belts) with in the gear box which bring the gears up to the right speed. I 
don't think they align the gears. (align in terms of angle). To replace, I'd 
have thought you'd need to take the whole gearbox out and apart. (assumption 
based purely on theory). Synchro really shouldn't go after 4 years though 
unless you've really abused it, or it contains a manufacturing defect.

In short, I think your up for a big bill. Just drive to higher revs in 2nd 
then go straight to 4th. In my dad's 5spd for getting around in the city, I 
only really used 1st and 5th. I added in 2nd when I needed to get about 
50km/h. 3rd seemed like an optional extra for accelerating hard at about 
110km/h. (Just think how much fuel I could have saved if I could have removed 
the dead weight of 4th!)

cheers

Jon


> Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2008 11:38:38 -0800 (PST)
> From: Dan DiBiase <d_dibiase at yahoo.com>
> Subject: [A4] Synchro Going?
> To: quattro at audifans.com, a4 at audifans.com
> Message-ID: <649286.31353.qm at web50902.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
> I have a slight 'graunch' when shifting into 3rd gear quickly. This seems
> to have developed recently (my wife has been driving the car the last
> couple of months to keep the mileage down on our leased van). It only
> happens entering third gear, both when upshifting and downshifting. It
> doesn't happen if you slow the motion down and ease it into gear. Is my
> synchro on third gear going? Can one replace just a synchro?
>
>  Dan D
> '04 A4 1.8Tq MT-6
> Central NJ USA
>
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> End of A4 Digest, Vol 61, Issue 2
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