Corsa gearbox not working properly

cxx666

Hi. I'm hoping somebody can clear this up for me, but I think my Corsa '04 gearbox might have had it.

I was waiting at a set of lights on a roundabout at the start of a bypass. My foot slipped off the clutch as a moved off and the wheels spun a hell of a lot and I heard a clunck under the car when I went into 2nd gear. As I went onto the bypass I noticed that all was not well with the gears, noticably 4th to start with but then 2nd.

I put the gearstick into the 4th potition and the car just revved and revved, as if there wasnt a 4th gear at all. Then I was able to move the gearstick freely from 2nd and 4th positions without goin into neutral first. By this point it had also decided I had an imaginary 6th gear, directly next to where 4th was, but I had never been able to put the gearstick in that position before.

The car has now decided it has a 2nd and 4th again, but it doesnt feel right when I change gear and I can still move the gearstick into where 6th would be if it had 6 gears. It also still moves into reverse as normal.

I phoned the dealership who sold me the car and explained what had happened and I was told that although the man I spoke to just sold the cars, it sounded like the gearbox had given up to him. Fortunately for me this is protected by my extended warranty

So basically my question is this, what if anything could have caused this to happen, and has anybody else had this problem before and what did it turn out to be?

thanks

PS I've asked people who have been in the car with m,e before and they dont think I'm hard, or agressive with the gearbox

xycom1

Sounds like the gear linkage. It joins the stick to the gearbox. A weak part in this age/model of Corsa - I had a 53 and the linkage broke, couldn't select any gear -the gearbox was stuck in 4th.

It's usually the plastic ball/socket joint in the linkage that becomes detached, newer models (circa 54 onwards) have a metal gearlinkage that is more resilient - the fix costs about £100-150 including fitting, but as you said should be covered by your warranty.

cxx666

thanks for the info, but i'm afraid I dont think its that.

I had my gear linkage replaced at the start of the summer because the gearstick was putting up a hell of a fight when i tried putting it into 1st, then as time went on 2nd and reverse also. It certainly doesnt feel like that because this time the gearstick wasnt putting up a fight, it was doing its part. It felt like i had a box full of neutrals at 1 point, which I'm sure you can appreciate was pretty frightening considering I was in the overtaking lane on the bypass

goldspanners

if it goes from 2nd to 4th position without returning to nuetral then it must be a linkage gone somewhere.
or the gear lever has snapped.
as xycom has said this is a weak part on your model so there is every chance its broken again. or its a different linkage thats broken,theres more than one probably.

cxx666

Well sadly I think I'm resigned to the fact it might be a linkage problem (again) because somebody suggested that on another forum as well. It only moved straight from 2nd to 4th on the bypass, after I stopped in a car park and had a look under the bonnet for anything obvious it now has to go back into neutral before another gear is selected, the only obvious damage to it while I was driving it to the garage was the fact it still happily goes from 5th to where a 6th gear would be

I sincerely hope its the gearbox cos I could really do without forking out for yet another linkage

goldspanners

cxx666 wrote: »

I sincerely hope its the gearbox cos I could really do without forking out for yet another linkage

award for craziest statement of the year goes to.....


i think you would prefer to pay for another linkage,do you know how much a gear box will cost you?
it will cost a hell of a lot more than a little linkage.

be happy its just the linkage!

Flyfisher_2

cxx666 wrote: »

I phoned the dealership who sold me the car and explained what had happened and I was told that although the man I spoke to just sold the cars, it sounded like the gearbox had given up to him. Fortunately for me this is protected by my extended warranty

And the award for not reading the whole thread goes to..........:rolleyes:

goldspanners

Flyfisher wrote: »

And the award for not reading the whole thread goes to..........:rolleyes:

you :rolleyes:.

if the linkage was replaced at the start of the summer then i would expect if its the same one it should be replaced or repaired for free. it should last longer than a few months.

hewhoisnotintheknow

my mate had a corsa with linkage problems, sure he said they were made out of plastic or chocolate

xycom1

At least if it was made out of chocolate, you'd have something to munch on when you were stuck at the side of the road.

Flyfisher_2

goldspanners wrote: »

you :rolleyes:.

if the linkage was replaced at the start of the summer then i would expect if its the same one it should be replaced or repaired for free. it should last longer than a few months.

No, you, because the point you were making was that the gearbox would cost more that a linkage when in fact, according to the Op it would be covered, and cost him nothing.