Honda Jazz gearbox - replace or repair?

Lizutia

Hi everyone,
I am new to this forum but really need a good advice from more experiences drivers/mechanics or anyone who had similar problem.

In December last year I bought a 05reg Honda Jazz 1.4l 5 door hatchback , manual, done 90k miles.. . It had only one previous owner, full service history and looked like a maintained and taken care of car

When i just bought it i could feel a vibration some time, but did not pay too much attention because it was very light and nit regular.
After about a month i started hearing a noise, something like rrrrr, but it was too quite for anyone to notice if you did not close all the windows and turned off the music and really tried hard to listen.

After another month or so noise started going louder and I clearly noticed it would disappear when i press the clutch. Noise also the loudest on lower gears, especially loud on 1st gear ...

So it was clear to me I had a problem with my gearbox, and when i took it to Honda then diagnosed right away it was my inout shaft bearing.

Noise is betting louder and louder and i do not know what is the best thing to do.

Option 1 is to buy a reconditioned gearbox and replace mine. Then I have a question how do i buy a gearbox that would be a match? What do i ask a seller to know the gearbox will be good for my car? And how do i know the gearbox i buy will not be faulty?

Option 2 is to buy a new bearing and replace it.

Please can anyone give me a good advice because I have heard so many opinions from different people, but never from anyone who had similar situation..
Also can anyone suggest good mechanic who has experience in gearbox repairs? I am in nottingham

Thank you!

GwylimT

The Honda jazz is a very reliable car so if I was in your position I would definitely look for a reconditioned/second hand gear box in good condition, where the Jazz is concerned I'm pretty sure you can have any of the petrol gear boxes from the 2002 to 2008 model.

As you are unsure about quality etc of essentially used gear boxes you may be better allowing a garage to both source and fit for you, it's common practice so they shouldn't have a problem sourcing a gear box. This also means if they source a gear box that isn't in a good enough condition, it's on them to look again for something better.

Slowly_does_it..

If the gearbox is behaving well apart from the noise - easy to put into gear, does not kick out of gear, no stiff bits when moving the gear lever, and you still like the rest of the car, I would vote for a new bearing in your current gearbox.

While they have the gearbox out to change the bearing, ask them to drop a new clutch in as well - they will have done 90% of the work needed to change a clutch to get to the bearing.

macman

Most garages will not want to fit a gearbox you have sourced yourself, for obvious reasons. And if they do, you'll get no kind of warranty on it.
Unless you can fit it yourself, why not let the mechanic source it for you?

atrixblue.-MFR-.

The jazz, civic and accord suffer gearbox bearing failures.


To source a second hand gearbox may slam you back into the same position. I would get it reconditioned through a good recommended garage. and leave the unknown state boxes where they are.

tracey3596

Owned a 2002 1.4 SE until two years ago; owned from ALMOST new and maintained well.
I LOVED that car.:o
BUT - and here's the thing - I (personally, mind you; I realise not everyone's experience will be the same) found that once the car hit an "age" ( of in my case, 100,000 miles ) it became VERY expensive to maintain.
From what you might call "silly" things light the headlight covers becoming discoloured & needing replacing/polishing to the more-serious, like repeated wheel bearings; the beginnings of bodywork corosion or manifold & catalytic convertor replacement - and I could go on. :eek:
It became very expensive to keep on the road!

SO .............. my advice, having owned one is ....... repair it as (ahem) inexpensively as you can and sell as soon after that as you can. :cool:

At least people read reviews nowadays you see, and THINK that the Jazz is ultra-reliable SO it'll sell.
Do a search for "problems" and you'll find quite a few.
Shame really because it's a GREAT car, but expensive to keep once it hits a certain age.

BeenThroughItAll

tracey3596 wrote: »

Owned a 2002 1.4 SE until two years ago; owned from ALMOST new and maintained well.
I LOVED that car.:o
BUT - and here's the thing - I (personally, mind you; I realise not everyone's experience will be the same) found that once the car hit an "age" ( of in my case, 100,000 miles ) it became VERY expensive to maintain.
From what you might call "silly" things light the headlight covers becoming discoloured & needing replacing/polishing to the more-serious, like repeated wheel bearings; the beginnings of bodywork corosion or manifold & catalytic convertor replacement - and I could go on. :eek:
It became very expensive to keep on the road!

SO .............. my advice, having owned one is ....... repair it as (ahem) inexpensively as you can and sell as soon after that as you can. :cool:

At least people read reviews nowadays you see, and THINK that the Jazz is ultra-reliable SO it'll sell.
Do a search for "problems" and you'll find quite a few.
Shame really because it's a GREAT car, but expensive to keep once it hits a certain age.

Any car will need work doing when it gets older and none of the things you mention are particularly serious or expensive; headlamps can be polished using a variety of off-the-shelf products and some elbow grease, 'repeated' wheel bearings points to low-quality aftermarket parts or poor workmanship when fitting, body corrosion takes a long time to get serious enough to need fixing, and catalytic convertors generally have a lifespan, and will often need replacing at some stage.


I don't think it's fair to tar all Jazz' with the 'expensive to maintain once they hit 100K' brush.

macman

Problem with the Jazz is that they're extremely popular with, shall we say, the more senior drivers? So most will be relatively low mileage, but are likely to have hammered drivetrains (clutches and gearboxes), and all the problems you'd expect on vehicles used mainly for short town runs.
Having said that, they're consistently rated among the most reliable cars on the road.

[Deleted User]

My experience...


Our old VW Passat 1.9 TDi 130 Sport 2004 gearbox main bearing failed at 50000 miles. Apparently a known issue...


VW wanted £2000ish including a goodwill gesture.


Ended up going direct to a gearbox specialist who rebuilt the box ~£800. We ran it over 100000 miles with no issues then traded it...


The Passat was say 5 at the time, would I do such a repair these days on a 10 year old car, nope but only you can decide.


Cheers

colino

Unfortunately it is too much of a lottery to buy a Honda gearbox from a scrappy (or allegedly reconditioned) as they frequently have exactly the same problem yours has. Only long term solution is rebuilding your own but the good news is that they tend to soldier on for a while, so it does give you a bit of time to find out who your locally recommended gearbox repairer is. Don't delay too long though as other parts will just have to be replaced too.

davemorton

Honda realised there was a problem with these boxes, and extended the warranty on them from 3 to either 5 or seven years. I was lucky and found out about 2 weeks before mine had ran out and quick smart got it into the dealer. Might be worth a letter to Honda, they can sometimes be quite helpful, even if it is a partial discount. They once paid half of the cost of a new engine in an S2000 that was out of warranty for me, now that was an expensive fix!

Edit: it was 7 years
http://www.civinfo.com/forum/honda-jazz/50444-faulty-gearbox-bearings-how-save-packet.html