Car w/ broken gear box - repair or new car?!

bohemia

Hi,

I wondered if anyone would be so kind as to give me advice. We've had our second hand Honda Civic (2003 reg) for a year. It's done just over 100,000 and been told today that it needs a new gearbox Estimation for labour and parts, incl sending off to gear specialist, around 2000 pounds. It hasn't needed anything done to it in the 11 months owned and we bought because they have a good rep for being reliable cars... hmm. Is this just part and parcel of owning a second hand car?! It just makes you want to do away with secondhand cars and start with brand new cars! I guess the advice I'm after is that it WILL be worth the new gearbox and will then give us more years of driving... is this true?

pendulum

It shouldn't cost £2,000, take it to another garage who will acquire a used gearbox and fit it for much less than that. Get a second opinion that it really does need a new gearbox first as well.

You can start with brand new cars if you like but you will lose £2,000 just driving it out of the showroom in VAT and depreciaton on the first day.

mcfisco

I would expect to get a 2nd hand gearbox for around £300
Have a look around for an independent garage that specialises in Hondas to fit it or a well recommend general garage

mikey72

bohemia wrote: »

Hi,

I wondered if anyone would be so kind as to give me advice. We've had our second hand Honda Civic (2003 reg) for a year. It's done just over 100,000 and been told today that it needs a new gearbox Estimation for labour and parts, incl sending off to gear specialist, around 2000 pounds. It hasn't needed anything done to it in the 11 months owned and we bought because they have a good rep for being reliable cars... hmm. Is this just part and parcel of owning a second hand car?! It just makes you want to do away with secondhand cars and start with brand new cars! I guess the advice I'm after is that it WILL be worth the new gearbox and will then give us more years of driving... is this true?

There's a known fault on the civic.
Well maybe two.
Third gear doesn't go in, and the main bearing gets noisy.
It's done well to last 100,000 miles, but sadly a second hand one could be the same.
Then again it could last another 50,000 miles though, and should cost about £500 to £750 to source and fit.

Notmyrealname

Get them to fit a full clutch kit as well at the same time. It'll save you £100s in labour in the future.

poppasmurf_bewdley

In the old days, we'd have bunged some sawdust into the gearbox and it would have run for another 10k miles.

Wonder if that old trick still works?

atrixblue.-MFR-.

i wouldnt bother with a reconditioning the box, just get a used box thats done low mileage fit new clutch kit and gearbox fluid.

price wise i would say around £450 for the box and clutch and fluid £200 fitted.

£2000 is way expensive for recon existing box plus labour and parts. heres an idea how much one could cost remanufactured, not a 1.4 by anychance is it? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Honda-Civic-1-4-01-05-manual-gearbox-recondition-supply-/220807545917?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item336927c43d

bohemia

Thanks everyone. Great advice much appreciated. The quote is roughly 400 labour and they said that the Honda dealer doesnt have any new gearboxes. This garage also doesnt use reconditioned ones as they have too many problems that come back to haunt them. So they plan to have a gearbox specialist to take it all apart and fix it, then put back in. All the above is what comes to 2000. We're gonna get a new clutch too, as someone suggested, as the quote for that was under 200. All pretty galling given that 2012 was to be the year of major saving...

I guess this is all part and parcel of owning a (secondhand) car!

bohemia

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

£2000 is way expensive for recon existing box plus labour and parts. heres an idea how much one could cost remanufactured, not a 1.4 by anychance is it? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Honda-Civic-1-4-01-05-manual-gearbox-recondition-supply-/220807545917?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item336927c43d

That's a really interesting link... Thanks. It is a 1.4. Hmm...

mikey72

bohemia wrote: »

That's a really interesting link... Thanks. It is a 1.4. Hmm...

I'm sure it's a reputable remanufactuer.

But, all the feedback is for panels from other cars.
The address is a flat.
The price is about the same as you would pay for a secondhand box.

Worth checking where they will supply and fit if you take that option.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

i threw the link in to give you an idea i had not had chance to fully check the ad, i asked if was the 1.4 these suffer with gear syncro problems. hard to select gear if not at all, especially third or internal bearing failure.

EDIT, micky already has that spot on.