Help Gear box gone on 2nd hand car after 6 weeks

pulliptears

Interestingly we recently parted with a 1.9 CDTi Diesel Astra. Around January this year the gearbox failed quite spectacularly on the M6 taking the clutch and flywheel with it. Total cost was just over £2k to repair. Fortunately it happened in slow traffic or it could have been quite nasty indeed.

Being wiser to things after I now Know that this engine is prone to gearbox failure around the 60/70k mark. Vauxhall will occasionally offer help and repair but only if the car has full dealer service history. Ours had FSH but not dealer FSH.

We had the gearbox reconditioned but were warned that another 10k on the clock would probably see it fail again. We traded it in to a large chain car dealer in the midlands, making clear it had been fitted with a recon box and providing the paperwork for it.

The Astra forums are sadly full of tales of this box failing, I believe the Zafira suffers similar issues. Lovely car when it's working, it had a great spec, colour sat nav, leather heated seats, cruise etc, wouldn't touch another though.

colino

Ask on a vx forum who the local goto guy is in rebuilding the box. You obviously need a decent (secondhand) casing to work on but it does appear to be a growing industry in rebuilding these boxes when the diff explodes. Usually with a major component fail like this, I'd recommend you sourcing an accident damaged one from copart or the like, but a rebuild is better in this case because the potential for a similar aged one to do exactly the same is too high.

OddballJamie

bigjl wrote: »

Yes.

The reason being they are not under manufacturers warranty and are too old to be stocked by main dealers in any significant quantity.

What has not being under warranty got to do with a cars age?

When a current KIA reaches six years old, will it still be newer than a four year old Ford?

Actually using that logic if I keep my current Vauxhall doing the annual mileage I do it will be classed newish at 15 years old.

OddballJamie

fivetide wrote: »

As we don't know how the car was driven and certianly have no idea if it has been mapped it isn't fair on the OP or his son to keep saying such things.

No it's not fair as we know nothing about the car, not even the mileage or service history.

However what is known is there's quite a lot of 1.9cdti sporthatches about that have been mapped whether the current owners know or not.

I also know of someone who crashed one at the Nurburgring, got it fixed on the quiet and it was traded back into the dealer network at two years old.

bigjl

OddballJamie wrote: »

What has not being under warranty got to do with a cars age?

When a current KIA reaches six years old, will it still be newer than a four year old Ford?

Actually using that logic if I keep my current Vauxhall doing the annual mileage I do it will be classed newish at 15 years old.

Nothing like quoting out of context to attempt to make your point.

As my use of correct terminology appears to cause you such angst then please feel free to call a 15yr old car new if it makes you happy.

I assume you think a 5 yr old car is new then?

Well i am happy that you do.

£20k car now five years down the line and worth less than £5k is considered oldish by everybody i know.

Maybe i just live in a more affluent part of the country.

All this upset over the term "oldish" :rotfl:

Oh, do want to buy a new car? Only 2 years old but it is new honest.......

fivetide

OddballJamie wrote: »

However what is known is there's quite a lot of 1.9cdti sporthatches about that have been mapped whether the current owners know or not.

I also know of someone who crashed one at the Nurburgring, got it fixed on the quiet and it was traded back into the dealer network at two years old.

We don't know if it is a sporthatch either. I'd be interested to see some stats ont he number that are mapped.

I also doubt it is the Nurburgring crashed car but if this one has been through the mill that only strengthens the OP's case for the fault being there at purchase.

For me, pulliptears experience seems to point to fault with the gearbox even with a standard car (unless of course we are assuming pulliptears is 18 year old chav who spends all their time doing burnouts in McD's carpark which seems to be about the only way this ever happens reading some of the responses! - not this one btw)

darrensurrey

Ozzy69 wrote: »

the fault was obviously there when car was sold and therefore not of a satisfactory quality.

Do you mean you bought the car knowing the gearbox was faulty so probably paid less than you would have done if you'd bought a mechanically-sound car?

OddballJamie

bigjl wrote: »

Nothing like quoting out of context to attempt to make your point.

As my use of correct terminology appears to cause you such angst then please feel free to call a 15yr old car new if it makes you happy.

I assume you think a 5 yr old car is new then?

Well i am happy that you do.

£20k car now five years down the line and worth less than £5k is considered oldish by everybody i know.

Maybe i just live in a more affluent part of the country.

All this upset over the term "oldish" :rotfl:

Oh, do want to buy a new car? Only 2 years old but it is new honest.......

I see any car past the first MOT as oldish, three years is the point in my mind and that has nothing to do with warranty age.

My current car, I've had since new was three years old in September, I count that as oldish although it's still under warranty.

I also don't count pre reg as new, they're nearly new and will be until 6 months old.

My point is attaching a cars age to a warranty is pointless nowadays with manufacturers varying warranty lengths.

Dieselman

fivetide wrote: »

As we don't know how the car was driven and certianly have no idea if it has been mapped it isn't fair on the OP or his son to keep saying such things.

That is correct we don't know nor will the new owners know how it was driven before, But if it's found to have been modded like plenty of the cdti are then it's possible it's been thrashed at some point.;)

Changing the oil for better quality spec at around 30k should help to maintain the bearings see a longer life, the vx stuff is not very good.;)

OddballJamie

fivetide wrote: »

We don't know if it is a sporthatch either. I'd be interested to see some stats ont he number that are mapped.

I also doubt it is the Nurburgring crashed car but if this one has been through the mill that only strengthens the OP's case for the fault being there at purchase.

For me, pulliptears experience seems to point to fault with the gearbox even with a standard car (unless of course we are assuming pulliptears is 18 year old chav who spends all their time doing burnouts in McD's carpark which seems to be about the only way this ever happens reading some of the responses! - not this one btw)

No the crashed one was a petrol, he traded it for a new 1.9cdti. Crash happened inbetween the time he agreed a trade in price/ valuation/ ordered new car and the new car was delivered.

As a coincidence the new car was mapped to 200bhp almost immediately switchable using the sport button.

I'm not saying the majority are mapped or that mapping causes major issues, just I wouldn't fancy buying one that has previously been done. Same as all used cars, buyer beware, even more so with used warm/hot hatches.