Quote from P5YcHoM4N :

I'd put £5 on it not being the gears damaged by parking in gear. If they ain't movin' they ain't wearing and because you use the car regularly and had oil in the box, they won't get the time required to seize up and cause damage.

Yeah, that's the way I park my cars too. Handbrake may freeze stuck in winter so never use it for parking.

Only kind of cars you do not want to park and leave on gear is lorries. Damn things won't have enough air pressure straight when you start so you can't change gears and also because of lack air pressure your brakes are also on.

Parking your car in gear will never do damage to a transmission unless the car gets hit hard (Some Toyota transmissions will lock due to the reverse gear sliding into place if the car is hit). Anyway....

I do not know what you can do but you or someone else needs to separate the trans from the engine to see/ replace what went wrong because that is almost certainly where your problem is.

Unless you were making yourself deaf with loud music and headbanging like an idiot, you would have heard and felt the transmission go. My bet is on something hydraulic or pressure plate/ throw out bearing (Clutch release bearing, or whatever the name keeps changing to)

loooooooooooooooool why didn't i think of that that's a very trololol comment. I LIKE YOU.

My Dad found that the master cylinder was under the battery box and some clip might of come out so he asked me to remove the battery box so we could look.

He had a reach inside and appears to of found the gear selector cables - and it doesn't seem like it's engaging any gear properly. Could this be the problem?

Sorry for not replying to half the posts - I'm still getting the hang of car mechanics (before I bought the ZT i'd never even changed a headlight bulb before!), and I've been having my Uni exams. Next week me and my Dad can crack through all the suggestions and have a look.

Quote from Jakg :

He had a reach inside and appears to of found the gear selector cables - and it doesn't seem like it's engaging any gear properly. Could this be the problem?

If you're stirring through the coals and there is no movement in the selector, then yes. Jobs a gooden, takes about 45 mins. The hardest part is making sure you get the linkages on right so the gears are where they should be.

Jack, I'm no good at mechanics either.

Mind coming over, taking a look under my bonnet, working on my engine. My trunk door won't close proper... can you fix that too?

Then we can have a carwash together.

topless?

Yes my sunroof will be open.

i meant topless carwash i want to see your nipples.

I don't have a convertible top.

But you have a removable top..

Perhaps I was a bit over-zealous there...

Jacked it up, the wheel gets progressive easier to turn the higher gear I select. It also spins easier with the clutch in. This suggests that at the very least something is going on down there.

My Dad's new helpful suggestion... "inertia flywheel" whatever that is.

Why dont you just take it to a garage. Topless, earn you extra discount.

Quote from Jakg :

Perhaps I was a bit over-zealous there...

Jacked it up, the wheel gets progressive easier to turn the higher gear I select. It also spins easier with the clutch in. This suggests that at the very least something is going on down there.

My Dad's new helpful suggestion... "inertia flywheel" whatever that is.

You're just delaying the inevitable. Your clutch is toast.

My moneys on clutch too...

Ive had a clutch go on me, A slave cylinder go on me, and a CV joint snap on me.

Slave cylinder ment I couldnt get any gears atall.
CV Joint ment I could select gears, but heard a bad clonking noise as the driveshaft was jumping about in the broken cv joint.

Clutch went and had exactly the same as you described...

Quote from Jakg :

Perhaps I was a bit over-zealous there...

Jacked it up, the wheel gets progressive easier to turn the higher gear I select. It also spins easier with the clutch in. This suggests that at the very least something is going on down there.

My Dad's new helpful suggestion... "inertia flywheel" whatever that is.

Inertia flywheel is just the flywheel that connects the crankshaft to the clutch. But I'm going to say it is your clutch that is gone. As I'm sure was suggested a couple of pages back by at least 5 other people. Unfortunately it is a 5ish hour job with the ZT, so that'll cost a pretty penny in labour.

Good news - garage picked my car up for further diagnosis.

Bad news - in the process of picking it up, they managed to put a massive scratch on the bottom and front of the bumper, and seem to of cracked it a little as well. Not happy.

Quote from Jakg :

Good news - garage picked my car up for further diagnosis.

Bad news - in the process of picking it up, they managed to put a massive scratch on the bottom and front of the bumper, and seem to of cracked it a little as well. Not happy.

That is why garages have insurance, if they did a pre-pickup check to show there was no damage (which you signed) and then a post-pickup check to show there was damage (which you signed) then they will foot the bill for repairs.

Quote from P5YcHoM4N :

That is why garages have insurance, if they did a pre-pickup check to show there was no damage (which you signed) and then a post-pickup check to show there was damage (which you signed) then they will foot the bill for repairs.

There were no sheets etc, it's a small local garage.

Update - they've had a look, and believe it to be the DMF and want £1200 to repair it.

I'm slightly suspicious they've had the car for 2 hours (not enough time to remove it) yet have diagnosed the most expensive repair possible.

Talking to them via my Dad atm which isn't helping (he advised me to go to this garage in the first place, despite past experiences).

We've agreed they are going to drop the gearbox and have a closer look, then order the parts required, once we've had a look at the DMF / clutch.

I'm not feeling good about this, at all, but I feel like I have no choice

Quote from http://www.myturbodiesel.com/1000q/clutch-kit-FAQ-VW-Audi.htm#wornclutch :

Almost all new German cars (manual transmission) come with a DMF. Because they are 2 pieces, it's possible for the damping layer to fail. Typical failure modes in the TDI DMF are a separation of the DMF causing failure of the damping system or "liberation" of fragments, flying pieces of the flywheel which can damage the transmission. Black leaking oil could be a leaking flywheel instead of a leaking rear main oil seal. The real problem with the DMF is that they are tuned to a diesel's specific resonant characteristics, power levels, and can overpower the springs inside the flywheel if you raise the energy absorbed by the flywheel too much. A heavily modified car might exceed the original design limits so it's suggested to use a solid flywheel on a heavily modified car. If the flywheel is damaged and the layers slip too much, it can even break and cover the flywheel bolt holes, making removal a real problem. If this happens, you can sometimes use a prybar to move the bolt holes into the correct position. Sometimes it's completely jammed and you have to cut holes to access the bolt heads.

If the DMF broke (and trust me because this is a common occurance on VAG TDIs) it would be very juddery under high load in a low gear.

Also, fwiw, a solid flywheel conversion means that, yes, the flywheel can deal with more power, but it also passes more power down through the transmission tunnel which can wear out gears and what not faster. Someone is running a 240bhp 1.9TDI Mk4 on the owners site and they have a DMF because it's a) smoother b) less rattle (doesn't sound broken on idle) and c) cheaper to replace every couple of years than a whole new gearbox!

Been to the garage today and had a look. Definately DMF failure - 100% free play in it, lots of hot spots on the plate.

Total bill - £1,379 which includes a new DMF, clutch, master, slave & labour. Ouch.

Took a few pictures:















And the damage to the bumper:

so how much are they going to knock off for damaging the front of your car?

Or if they offer to repair it make sure they do a proper job of repairing it and respraying it rather than touching it up.

Do we get to say "told ya so?" Or rather, we told your dad so.

All that hesitation for a week. You could have had your car back by now.

Quote from Forbin :

Do we get to say "told ya so?" Or rather, we told your dad so.

All that hesitation for a week. You could have had your car back by now.

True, but I really wasn't expecting it to be the DMF.

Quote from Luke.S :

so how much are they going to knock off for damaging the front of your car?

Or if they offer to repair it make sure they do a proper job of repairing it and respraying it rather than touching it up.

I haven't discussed it yet, going to wait until they no longer need to work on the car before going mental.

I'm not going to get the bumper repaired, nor would they have the facilities to do so. I'll just be looking for straight £