Anyway, I hit a speed bump on my way home yesterday and immediately felt the gearbox and gearstick jolt so as I went to change up gear, I couldn't select anything.
Pulled over, and the gearstick would hardly move - only very slightly forwards and very little side to side.
I couldn't move the gearstick anywhere to try get reverse, 1st, 2nd and 4th.
After about 2 hours and a useless RAC call out I managed to drive the 130 miles home with only 3rd and 5th gears!
Anyway, got it up on axle stands today and this is what's occured...
Looking down the right side of the engine you can see where the selecter rods come in to the engine bay.
Centre of shot - I don't know if the casing where they rods join to is supposed to be angled away from the gearbox casing - is that right??
Otherwise, all looks fairly ok.
Underneath the car though it's a different story!
Looking towards the back of the engine - here you can see what's happened.
The mounting point for the rear engine support has sheered off, and the arm is now sitting a good inch or two further back than it should!
Viewed from the side, you can see where the bolt for the mount is supposed to be (far right),
Having looked at it, it looks like the previous owner has had this mount welded - so all I can assume is it's gone before and he's bodged it up!
So, I'm thinking I'm gonna have to replace the entire gearbox in order to sort it, as it's part of the gearbox casing.
However, I've also seen a complete engine and gearbox for sale with much lower miles than mine, so am thinking of swapping the whole lot, but am I best keeping my ECU or getting the one from the new engine too?
Whichever I get, I have a full version of VAGCOM to aid programming it in (fortunately it's only an immobiliser, no alarm & no central locking etc.) but if I replace the ECU with the new engine, am I gonna have to get the existing keys recoded to suit? Are there any other things that will need doing in order to get the new engine n box up n running?