[Vwdiesel] Tranny bearing noise??

[LBaird119 at aol.com]

In a message dated 9/19/2010 5:35:55 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
scameron at storm.ca writes:

> It has not got any worse in about 30,000km, just embarassing at 
> drive-thru's
> and waiting for lights to change.
> 

  Most likely a bearing.  My Mustang was growly in 1st and 2nd, 
silent in 3rd.  Bad input and output bearings.  Replacing them made 
it silent.  I heard quite a few of those when I was taking notice.  
No side load in 3rd.
  As to the Rabbit/Jetta tranny, not sure.  The most common bearing 
failure in them is the rear pinion bearing.  It's right next to the "crap 
magnet" so when it gets full, it overflows right into the bearing.  They 
tend to fail anyway though.  Could be a spring in the clutch disk.  I've 
heard the same stuff but never chased any down.
  My Rabbit has a bit of the 5th gear thing going on and you can really 
hear it, window down, next to a concrete barrier, hot day, 5th gear and 
just cruising.  Quiets down loaded or decelerating.
  My Passat's the one with an odd one.  Pop it into neutral while slowing 
down and most of the time I get a similar rattle/noise.  Push the clutch 
in and back out and it goes away!  Makes me think it's something with 
the disk; spline fit or a spring or such?
    Loren