noise when reversing, any ideas?

[vw_golf_nutter]

hi all,
ive just bought myself a running project for the summer, its a 1996 Golf 2.0 Avantgarde Cabriolet. It pulls well in 1st-5th and sounds good but in reverse it makes a sort of 'chink...chink...chink' noise. it does drive smooth in reverse its just a noise but my guess is it sounds a bit like missing teeth in the reverse gear? Im no mechanic, im just a mere women but im wondering whether anyone might of had this before and whether its a recon box job or whether it can just be used as is.

thanks for any help.

[danmusic24]

Sounds like your reversing over a Chinese bloke

[Wayne]

Gearbox on it's last legs.

[vw_golf_nutter]

i was waiting for the chinese joke! lol

on its last legs :-( thats no good. will it be a case of reverse gear being lost or the whole thing going caput? any idea what the noise is exactly and is it common? the car has 129k on the clock

[vw_golf_nutter]

After more googling it sounds like a noisy clicking in reverse is common and it could be the reverse idler gear having missing teeth. Im going to get the gearbox oil changed to make sure there are no bits in the oil. If its ok will it survive with missing teeth or will it keep wearing away, will i only lose reverse?
Any idea on cost of labour £/hours to replace a gearbox?

[VW BUSH]

Start to worry when it jumps out of gear, cost around £200 to fix

[vw_golf_nutter]

Ok thanks alot for your help. Gonna get it looked at, its a nice car so worth fixing it i reckon, they are getting rarer

[mrsaunders]

My friends mk2s reverse has been like this for aslong as I can remember, probably last for ages

[nedward]

I have an avantgarde cabriolet, mine also has a chipped reverse gear.
Apart form sounding awful its never been a problem.
I have had my car for two years and its still going strong

[GOLF-MK3-GTI]

I have this same problem with my gearbox, But the good news is i have another one which im giving in some time soon to get re-conditioned.

I dont know if this is true, But i have heard that everytime it jumps out of reverse, your actually knocking a tooth of the reverse idler, which will soon or later wear off and you will not have a reverse gear at all,

Could someone confirm this?