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8 speed transmission appears to have exploded

4K views 22 replies 12 participants last post by  Crispy3 
#1 ·
I was driving my 2013 Touareg tdi at about 70 with cruise control on when I heard a series of metallic slaps followed by a bang and then the engine revved (presumably because it was spinning freely from the transmission). I pulled over and the car is totally immobile. Putting the vehicle in park doesn’t hold it, drive and reverse do nothing and it grinds when putting it in park.

Is my transmission toast? I researched this car extensively before purchase and didn’t see anything about transmission issues being common. Only 88k miles and well kept with service records.

has anyone else had this issue?
 
#4 ·
I agree with chewblekka. Might be worth crawling under your ride and giving things a visual.
 
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#5 ·
If it makes funny noises when its in gear, it might be a driveshaft broken or transfer case issue. (Not common).
If its doing weird things when you put it in park, that sounds like a bad time for your transmission.
Best of luck.
 
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#6 ·
There have been two recent cases where a Generation 2 drive / prop shaft has disconnected due to the C clip that secures it not being properly fitted after work on the car, so, as has been suggested, get underneath tte car and do a visual check.

Have you still got the benefit of the VW warranty which, in the US, is far more extensive in terms of time and distance than elsewhere since I think you get 100K on the drivetrain and there's Dieselgate too.
 
#8 ·
Grinding when attempting to put in park when stationary says the transmission output shaft is still spinning. This says a failure in the transfer case or one of the prop shafts or one of the diff out put shafts or diffs that's allowing this to happen .

You need to look under the car and see if anything still spinning when stationary at idle. If nothing visible spinning then its in the transfer case itself. I am not sure where the speedo sensor is but its probably on the transmission output shaft so VCDS should tell you if this is reading at idle ?

cheers
Rohan
 
#13 ·
Yes, it would covered until 2023 or 120K miles, or 4 years/48K miles after the fix was done, whichever is GREATER
 
#17 ·
Very glad to read you have got sorted and at no cost.

As I explained, in the two previous cases the shaft had been removed for work on the gearbox.

One came adrift fairly quickly, the other came off a year and some 4,000 miles later after the car had passed to a new owner.

The latter event occurred at high speed in the outside lane of a motorway/freeway and I think it may have dropped onto the road surface!

Both got fixed for free.

It's odd that three drive / prop shaft uncoupling events have all been reported on Touareg forums within a very few weeks of each other.

Is there any possibility your shaft had been removed previously?
 
#20 ·
These three occurrences in the last month are the first we've heard about this issue which appears to be most likely to occur after transmission work.

Nonetheless, as you say, it would be very sensible for any Generation 2 owner to ask their workshop to check out the shaft and its fixings whilst the oil is draining out of the sump (and no, I don't approve of suction changes!!)
 
#21 ·
2015 V-6 TDI: Just to give you another data point, my local dealer botched the installation of the front driveshaft after replacing the rear main seal. During their test drive the front driveshaft came loose resulting in catastrophic damage to the transmission. All was replaced and has done well for the past 3 years/30K miles.
 
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