Polo gearboxes so expensive :( (suggestions on where to get 2nd hand one)

[pontiff]

G'day all,

I just bought a 99 Polo with a 'DXE' 5 speed gearbox... its missing 4th and 5th gears (whats what you get for buying sight unseen... but no matter)

rang around.. best price i could find was 1500 for a 2nd hand one and that was changeover (im in VIC).

I've tried the normal haunts for boxes in vic. Is findapart worth a shot? Must admit, quite amazed that they are so expensive to be honest, but never mind.

Cheers,
Aaron

[noone]

You should speak to Camden GTI: http://www.camdengti.com.au/

This is the sort of thing they specialize in.

Think Golf Loon from this forum works there.

[GoLfMan]

$1500 isnt all that bad for a good working gearbox you know.

lucky to find one for $1000!!! good luck :)

[pontiff]

$1500 isnt all that bad for a good working gearbox you know.

lucky to find one for $1000!!! good luck :)

ahhh okay cool... i'll get the old one pulled apart and see what has **** itself and take it from there, if repair not an option then a 2nd handie it is :)

thanks for the thoughts.

[sports racer]

The Polo gearboxes are not very strong, being originally designed for 1000 cc motors. The main bearing is too small and over time starts to eat through the casing. Replacing the gearbox with a good 2nd hand one should see you right for another 50,000 k's. The gearbox in my 1997 Polo started to make a noise at 80,000 km, refused to get 5th gear at 130,000 km and finally shat itself at 170,000 km. One day it started to make an extra strange noise and within 2 days was so bad I couldn't drive the car over 60 kmh.

My Polo has eaten through 2 gearboxes (I do over 40,000 km a year) so I'm looking at replacing the motor and gearbox with a Golf 1800 motor and gearbox. The Golf gearbox is much stronger plus I will get an extra 22kw which will be handy for all the hills I drive over each day. Cost of converting to the Golf motor if I do it myself should be around $1200 which is cheaper than a 2nd hand Polo gearbox but I'll probably get Camden GTI to do the conversion just in case there are any little fiddly bits needed. Last thing I want is to have the car off the road for a week while I track down the correct exhaust flange or wierd bracket that Matt probably has dozens of.

Hopefully I can report on how the change went by the end of July.

Cheers

Paul