Verbal quote for automatic gearbox repair

asbokid

sujman wrote: »

I thought it was a perfectly reasonable charge, everyone has to earn a living.

The labour in swapping a gearbox is less than the labour involved in replacing a clutch, ergo it should cost less.

£100 for the tranny swap, not a penny more!

mbrijun

I am not a mechanic so cannot say for sure, but my impression was that it is quite a big job to get to the transmission...

forgotmyname

I thought £350.. HOW MUCH.... not a very good mate if he charged you that to swap a box.

Ford may have been cheaper... Normal garage would have been cheaper.

bigjl

I reckon the second garage is just going to replace the noisy bearing. It may be the end case bearing where the driveshaft mounts. That may not be the correct term, but we used to replace.lots of them in Rover 827's when i ran a garage.

However with that kind of repair the rest of the box is untouched.

I think the other place is just going to fit a recon box. The safest option really.

However on an X reg Focus you have to consider the vehicles value. It may be worthwhile just spending the £600 as you don't say tge gearbox has any issues other than this noise, so why bother reconning the entire box , just fix the noisy bit.

It is your choice at the end of the day, but if it was mine i would just fix the bearing. There is nothing wrong with the box internals so why give the other garage a free box to chnge the noisy bearing on then sell later for £1500 odd quid?

mbrijun

Bigjl: thanks for a great post. It has put my mind more at ease and I will most likely go with your advise on replacing the bearing only.

As you used to run a garage - should I also ask for a written quote, or will that simply upset the owner without any real gain?

Do you happen to know what bad driving habits may have caused this premature (miles wise) problem? Also, what's the worst case scenario if the problem is not rectified promptly?

Thank you again for your post.

asbokid

forgotmyname wrote: »

I thought £350.. HOW MUCH.... not a very good mate if he charged you that to swap a box. Ford may have been cheaper... Normal garage would have been cheaper

My mate did a gearbox swap for a packet of Bensons and a lift to the Jobcentre to sign on, once it was done!

asbokid

mbrijun wrote: »

Bigjl: thanks for a great post. It has put my mind more at ease and I will most likely go with your advise on replacing the bearing only.

As you used to run a garage - should I also ask for a written quote, or will that simply upset the owner without any real gain?

Do you happen to know what bad driving habits may have caused this premature (miles wise) problem? Also, what's the worst case scenario if the problem is not rectified promptly?

Thank you again for your post.

Study the values of X reg autobox Focuses on autotrader.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/search/used/cars/ford/focus/postcode/e14pz/radius/1501/transmission/automatic/sort/priceasc

The car is scarcely worth a grand.

It's not worth spending any more than £200 or so on repairing or replacing the gearbox on that age and model of car.

The only reputable advice that you have been given, so far, is "the car isn't worth throwing £1100 at".

Reconditioning gearboxes is a specialist job. There are very few engineering shops that can do it. It is very labour intensive and only worth doing on moderately valuable cars. When you buy a "reconditioned" gearbox, all you often get is a salvaged gearbox from a reclamation yard that has been cleaned up externally and flushed with clean oil.

Have you tried changing the gearbox oil? It's surprising what improvements an oil change can make to the smooth running.

mbrijun

asbokid wrote: »

Have you tried changing the gearbox oil? It's surprising what improvements an oil change can make to the smooth running.

That's an interesting point. I had the same advice outside of this forum. When 2 different people make the same sugestion I think it would only be fair to try it out.

Now the impression that I got is that it is never possible to fully drain the old oil out, so only a partial change is possible. But I guess that's better than nothing, and should not cost more than 60 quid or so.

Anyone else have successfully cured a noisy automatic gearbox by changing the oil?

Hammyman

asbokid wrote: »

The labour in swapping a gearbox is less than the labour involved in replacing a clutch, ergo it should cost less.
re!

Its only less by 6 bolts. It is BARELY less than the labour involved in replacing a clutch by maybe 5 minutes.

Hammyman

mbrijun wrote: »

That's an interesting point. I had the same advice outside of this forum. When 2 different people make the same sugestion I think it would only be fair to try it out.

Now the impression that I got is that it is never possible to fully drain the old oil out, so only a partial change is possible. But I guess that's better than nothing, and should not cost more than 60 quid or so.

Anyone else have successfully cured a noisy automatic gearbox by changing the oil?

Don't forget that most automatic gearboxes also have an oil filter that needs changing too.

Just as an aside, when you used to check the gearbox fluid level once a week/month, did you do it with the engine running or not?