DSG Fix: Multiclutch replacement of DQ200 on a VW Polo GT TSI

The amount of money I could have saved by not servicing/maintaining the vehicle at VW would have almost bought me my multiclutch and flywheel. What really bugs me is that the whole purpose of wanting warranty was in the eventuality of a multiclutch failure and VW has acted pretty shamefully about the whole ordeal. If there is no support for someone who has followed the service regime to the T, what is the average Joe to expect?

BHPian Viraat13 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

For those of you not in the know, you can get the background on my ownership review.

The gearbox out, at the VW workshop where the diagnosis was confirmed to be the clutch pack. (Note the debris of the worn out clutch all within the bellhousing.)

Anyway, the short version is that:

• The multiclutch was cooked @ 58k kms
• I was getting appalling goodwill warranty
• And VW wanted me to pay them 1L for this job after including their pittance of a gesture of goodwill warranty

Warranty was a huge waste of time and money. The amount of money I could have saved by not servicing/maintaining the vehicle at VW would have almost bought me my multiclutch and flywheel. What really bugs me is that the whole purpose of wanting warranty was in the eventuality of a multiclutch failure and VW has acted pretty shamefully about the whole ordeal. If there is no support for someone who has followed the service regime to the T, what is the average Joe to expect?

At this point, I was frankly quite fed up of them and decided to go ahead and change the clutch on my own. I asked my mechanic about it, and he said he hasn't done a DQ200 before, and none of his mechanic friends had any experience of it either. Yet, I was still determined, so I went ahead and did my own research on how to change the multiclutch/clutch pack of the 7-speed DQ200. I found many helpful videos (not a single one had complete info), went into n number of pages of the Google search result, and felt confident that I could do the job without worrying about it. All this research was over the 45 day lockdown, and the day it was lifted I went and bought the Luk repair kit.

Luk is the OEM supplier for this part as evidenced by the OE clutch of my Polo. Closeup shows the faint LUK stamping on the dual clutch.

The same day was dedicated to removing the fittings and the gearbox itself. The temperatures in Delhi are soaring this week at it was probably 40 degrees in the shade all throughout this project.

The various bits of the clutchpack removed.

The worn out fingers of the clutch.

Huge amount of debris in the bellhousing. The temps must have been pretty high in the GB because one of the shifter forks has plastic supports for a bearing, and that was not there on the fork that was removed!

The housing after it had been cleaned up with compressed air, and then washed with petrol and a small brush. In this, the small fork and bearing have been installed already.

The forks in place, and the splines of the input shaft have been greased. The shims were measured using a vernier caliper and then placed for their respective bearings.

The clutch pack ready to go in!

And installed! I missed a few pictures at this point because I was too involved in the installation, but basically the clutch needs to be pressed in for the locking ring to snap into place, and after that the clutch hub needs to be aligned with the markings on the clutch and pressed into place and secured using a locking ring.

Pretty black for something that's supposedly sealed for life. Not sure what the term means though, since there is no definition of life - is it the till the transmission breaks? Is it till the end of time?

None of the guides mentioned that the gear oil will leak out through the breather cap, and I didn't think to drain the oil before. So most of it leaked out onto the ground (can be seen in some photos). This is a special gear oil for the DQ200, so I had to get it via countersale at VW itself. The capacity is 1.9 litres and needs to be filled from the breather port.

Note: this transmission has two oils, one for the gearbox and one of the mechatronic. I also went ahead and topped up the mechatronic fluid, luckily I managed to find the right fluid in the aftermarket.

Continue reading the DSG fix and BHPian comments for more insights and information.