Don't know what to do for the best - problem with autmatic car + gearbox

Hootie19

I have a 51 plate Ford Focus. I paid £3,000 for it two and a half years ago. It had 99,000 ish on the clock then, and has 114,590 now.

I love the car, but as with a lot of older cars, it's turning into a bit of a money pit.

The cam belt was done when I bought it. I've had a lot of problems with the electrics, and have had new batteries, new alternator etc. My husband, after googling, and then talking to a neighbour, eventually fixed (hopefully) the problem with a bit of sandpaper as it seems to have been nothing more than a bad connection. Hey ho.

The latest problem is with the gears. It first happened three weeks ago. I had just come off a roundabout, and was accelerating. The car gave a hefty lurch/jump and the orange warning light came on in the dashboard.

I gently carried on to my destination, and after about an hour returned to the car, and the light had gone out. So I hoped that whatever the problem was, it had gone away.

Two weeks later, and the problem happened again. Again I gently carried on to my destination, and when I returned to the car, the light had gone out.

And once again, a week later, it happened again, only this time it sounded as though the engine was making a bit of a "whirring" noise, as though it couldn't select a gear and it felt as though the car was coasting in neutral. After a few seconds, it lurched back into gear and again the orange warning light came on.

I took it to my usual garage. He said that it may have grit in the transmission fluid and I agreed that they could drain and replac the transmission fluid.

After I picked it up, it did feel much smoother on the gear changes and seemed to be running much better.

It lasted a day.

It's been on the driveway since then (Saturday). I just don't know what to do for the best.

I feel now that I have just been throwing money at it over the past eight or nine months. I really don't want to be without a car, but can't afford to buy another one.

Sorry for the waffly post, but the crux of it is - does anyone with any mechanical knowledge think (from my limited information and descriptions) that it could now need a new gearbox, or could it just be more grit in the fluid (which the mechanic has written on the receipt). And if it is more grit, should I expect him to carry out the word without charge, as he didn't fix the problem first time round?

Gah - I wish I could manage without a car. Such a financial drain, aren't they!?

s_b

you dont get grit in the box
mechanic talks rubbish
you might of course get pieces of driveband breaking down due to age/overheat/abuse but this would kill the box and no amount of fluid transfers would do any good

either
take to a garage that knows what its talking about
scrap it/sell for spares
or seek advice from a long established auto reconditioner (choose carefully)

atrixblue.-MFR-.

sounds like no one thought of ATF at services (automatic transmission fluid) and has probably run on the same ATF oil since it was changed by a dealer service (if it was done when it needed it at service shedule) oil went thin allowed to overheat the box and hey presto drive all gone to pot.

select carefully over a reconditioner, make sure he has good priase from garages and the like and long established, TBH, i'd repair it because the likely hood of a dealer giving a fair price for something he's going to have to shell out on in order to sell is going to be disheartning.

TrickyWicky

As the two above have said, ATF won't cure a autobox that has been ragged senseless with the gas and never had its ATF changed. If the box is damaged then its damaged and it'll only get worse. That said, sometimes fresh ATF does work magic but it needs to circulate around the gearbox. Using the car for one day (IE into town and home again) might not of given it chance to work its way around the box and dilute any sludge thats built up. I did an ATF change on my volvo box a while back after it started showing signs of impending doom. It made a slight difference but I was still aware that it wasn't right and continued to notice this until it had a couple of long stretches on the motorway cruising at a constant speed which let the ATF really get around the box. That said, Volvo / AW gearboxes are pretty bullet proof and forgiving whereas not all automatic gearboxes are. Some of them are so bad you'd make a better one from cheese.

As for the money pit thing, all cars are once they're past 5 years. They all start to go wrong and need bits replacing. Sure you get a few very well built models that need minimal attention but they're rare and you have to know a bit about cars to know the rock solid from the chocolate teapot. Being a 51 plate yours is at the age of needing bits and pieces doing on a semi regular basis I'm afraid. You need to decide if its better the devil you know or the devil you don't. There really isn't much point moaning about an old car going wrong when its what.. 10/11 years old - they all go wrong and cost money that we'd like to spend elsewhere so just accept it or do some research to find another car that is of better quality - even a cheap sub £1000 car can be highly reliable if you go for a well researched model. Toyota, Volvo, Honda, Mazda are all pretty reliable at old age. Ford engines are long lasting but its the rest that let fords down.

Also if you do get the box reconditioned, as the above two posters say, be careful. Join a ford focus website and ask around for recommendations and what questions to ask, what the rough price should be etc.

mgdavid

if you are down south then go to King Automatics in Epsom, they come highly recommended by Honest John (Telegraph).

marlot

mgdavid wrote: »

if you are down south then go to King Automatics in Epsom, they come highly recommended by Honest John (Telegraph).

Agree. Failing that, any other member of fedauto

Hootie19

Thank you all. Do you mean get the existing gearbox reconditioned, or buy another, reconditioned, one. I've had a bit of a nosey on Ebay and there are a couple on there, from breaking cars, which are around the £150-£250 mark. That sounds very cheap, so I'm thinking if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.

I may have misunderstood what the garage said about the grit, but on my receipt, he wrote "Carry out checks on auto transmission unit. Drain fluid and re-fill. Carry out pressure test. Road test, feel ok. Advise may have more grit." So I may have made up the bit about it being in the fluid!

Can anyone give me a (very) rough guestimate as to what the cost of getting a reconditioned gearbox fitted might be? I know that's a bit like "how long's a piece of string", but are we taking £50 or £500?

Or getting the existing one reconditioned - any ideas of possible costs on that?

Thank you again for your input.

TrickyWicky

Depends on whether you mean purely just fitting a reconditioned box or getting one reconditioned first and then fitting it.

Either way it won't be cheap - you've got to get the old one out first so there's a good few hours labour there.

I'm not sure what you're referring to about the gearboxes on ebay. They're almost certainly just 'used' not 'reconditioned'. A used box may well do the job but unless you've personally driven it yourself you're taking a bit of a risk unless the seller will guarantee it. Getting a 'reconditioned' box (or getting yours reconditioned both will probably cost the same) is the best way forward if you want to keep the car. Otherwise if you want to sell the car and be like every other rogue, put in a used box and sell it. I personally couldn't do that though.

Either way it's going to be in the hundreds.