On the return half of a recent road trip, my '96 Jetta started making an unsettling grinding sound - it was pretty sudden.

When parked, I can rev the engine all I want and it's perfectly normal and smooth. As soon as the car is in gear, the grinding ensues. It doesn't matter how fast I'm driving, it seems to be directly related to RPM's.

I'm assuming it's something in the manual transmission, but does anyone know exactly what the problem could be and what this may cost me to have repaired?

 

Sounds like a trans going out. My 99 jetta wolfsburg did that. $1400 for a new trans + labor. While in there I got a new clutch and main seal....total came to over $2500. This car had less than 60K on it.