Astra H Gearbox

Cameron1590_2

hi All,

Wondering if you can help.

My current car that a purchased just over a year ago has developed a nasty whine in first gear and has been diagnosed by a gearbox specialist as a bearing that is failing (common on these boxes apparently) anyway its going to cost me 660 pounds to have a rebuild done and Im wondering if I should cut my losses, last year the car cost me 710pounds in repairs which luckily lloyds bank recovered under the warranty with the dealer.

The astra is a 2007 1.6 lpg converted so is cheap to run and currently myself and my partner are saving for a house so we are wondering if its best to sell/part ex my car and purchase another cheap run around? Currently I do around 1200/1500 miles a month so looking for something that is comfortable (I'm 6ft 5), cheap to run and reliable our budget is around 2k.

Any recommendations?

Thanks,

Cameron

atrixblue.-MFR-.

put it this way you've invested in the car and now know those jobs are done, £660 for a rebuild sounds about right, once done you can kick back and relax knowing they have been completed. They are aren't such a common problem on the Astra H for failing though its more pug citroen and Honda that have gearbox issues.


once its done youll know youll have an otherwise for the money spent a really tight and nice working car to keep hold of purchasing a unknown car will come with its own quirks and rattles that you may have to payout on.

I would keep it TBH

patman99

As your car has an LPG kit on, then it is worth repairing as you will recoup the cost in the saving of using LPG over petrol or diesel.

=rizla=

I'm guessing the price will also include a new clutch?, if so then that's one less expensive thing to go wrong. As has been said, with the miles you do the LPG is worth a lot. If you buy something new what's wrong with it?


It's always worth phoning around a lot of garages/gearbox specialists to get quotes. I had a DMF fail on a TDCI ford a few years ago, quotes ranged from £660-£1250 for the DMF/Clutch and slave cylinder. Local garages were quoting £1100-£1200 and saying it was a 2 day job, we ended up using A1 clutches in Birmingham, 4 hours and £660, very helpful staff and the car was great afterwards. (looking at their website they do gearboxes as well)

vansboy

If its just noisey, rather than faulty or causing a problem, can you not just put up with it until it gets worse?

Chances are it will either get really bad, really fast, or just be annoying at the level it is now.

VB

CrazyRed

vansboy wrote: »

If its just noisey, rather than faulty or causing a problem, can you not just put up with it until it gets worse?

Chances are it will either get really bad, really fast, or just be annoying at the level it is now.

VB

From my experience with those boxes, that's not a good idea - especially if it's the 6-speed. That bearing can fail very suddenly and then takes out either the gearbox case or the bellhousing when it goes, meaning that the gearbox is then scrap.

There are people on eBay offering to fix this issue for around the £400-500 mark, such as this one (there are others) http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vauxhall-Astra-VXR-M32-6-speed-Gearbox-repairs-including-fitting-/161600750570?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item25a027c3ea