Any mechanics? advice please!

random456

Never been on this forum before, hope it's the right one!

Well, bf has a 15 y/o astra estate, in the past 4 days it's started to make this funny noise, similar to when you are going over a road with rumble strips, coming from underneath the car. Took it to a mechanic and he said it was something to do with the gearbox but nothing to worry about, would get a good fair usage out of it yet.
Well this morning he was just pulling away from a junction and the car went to a dead stop, just like it had hit a wall or pothole and there was a loud noise. Couldn't start the car, found out 1st gear didn't work so had to use 2nd (I don't drive so not good on technicalities!)
Took it to mechanics this afternoon (2 different ones) and they said yet it was the gearbox, sommething to do with differential and something had popped out?? but apparently it's not dangerous and can still be used.
Been driven since and now works in 1st gear and the runbling noise has gone, the mechanic did nothing, it's just righted itself.
Mechanic says not to worry if it happened in a higher gear cos it wouldnt come to a dead stop like it did this morning...but i have a young son and what happens if it happened on motorway driving fast??
They've told him it's safe to drive and they are good mechanics (friends of family, used them a long time) but I am worried. Surely if a garbox does this it can't just fix itself?
Please, any advice would be great as I won't allow my son in the car. Does this mean it needs a new gearbox? Thanks!

random456

bump in the hope someone might know

Conor_3

TBH, I don't know if they've not replaced anything and it's working OK. Tnhe only thing I can think of that is diff related is the driveshaft popping out but that wouldn't affect your inability to select a gear.

Could be that one of the gear selector rods had popped off the balljoint and just needed to get popped back on. If it's that, it may do it again and increase with frequency. They're cheap enough to replace.

manda1205

Same as conor ^ If it is the gearbox gone its not worth it on a 15yr old car. As for driving it I wouldn't worry too much, I had the gearbox go on my escort a few years back, first reverse went so I just made sure that I didnt park where I needed to reverse (;) he he). The gears will go gradually and depending on how the cars driven (i.e.not thrashed) it could go for a while yet, just depends really.

random456

Thanks..so it is on the way out then? I've just got my son to consider and if it does it again at high speed and someone goes into the back of us i don't want squashed child for the sake of a couple of hundred quid.

Lorian

Maybe you broke a tooth off one of the diff cogs. I've done that on a Vauxhall Vectra. Eventually the tooth got caught in the box and was pinged though the gearbox casing. To much for me to look at, but a local mech replaced the cog and patch up the hole in the box for IIRC about £100. You could tell it had made a hole in the case becuase you could smell the gearbox oil burning as it dripped onto the exhaust. Lovely

random456

hmm, there was no burning smell. the thing i dont get is the rumbling noise 3 days prior, then 1st gear going then the rumbling goes and the gear works fine now! i don't trust it.

Lorian

TBH I wouldn't trust it either. Best bet is finding another independant mechanic for a 2nd opinion. IF it's making no noise now though it'll need to be stripped down for sure.

harveybobbles

I had a Saab that would only go into certain gears when it felt like it. That was the selector that needed realigning up. So could be something as simple as that. Seeing as Saab and Vauxhall are the same...

manda1205

Dont forget this car is 15 years old, IMO it's just not viable to go getting it fixed, it's alright if doing it yourself, but paying someone to fit a new gearbox is a lot of labour, this is where cost will mount up. Have a look about for another cheapie with years tax and test to keep you going, local free ads a good start.

random456

The car has been great, hardly anything has gone wrong with it, we drove all round the east coast last month, did over 900 miles, nothing went wrong at all and all that only cost £20 in Diesel! it's done 190, 000 miles so far.
Thing is the way I look at it, another cheap car would most prob have as many problems, so add the cost of the new car to it's problems and it would be more expensive than fixing up this one..which i have a soft spot for

This car cost £50, it was basically scrap. A mechanic put in the gearbox 2 years ago cos the orig one was kaput as well as doing a couple of hundred pounds repairs on it- we just haven't got the money to buy a more modern car, it's easier for us to keep paying out on the rare occasions something does go wrong (and this is the first occasion come to think of it apart from once when the fan belt snapped off!) It's only failed 1 MOT since we had it and that cost about £200...if we had the money yeah we would get a newer one but bits of money spread out like that we can afford, yeah if you add it up it costs more but we havent got large sums of money to spend in one go and refuse to use credit cards and stuff, we only use money we actually have if that makes sense. It's like having a payg phone...more expensive in the long run but at least you know where you are with it, no nasty surprises or lump sun bills!

forgot to mention..before this car we had a fairly new corsa. Everything went wrong with it, it overheated on a major roundabout in the city centre (scared me to death) as well as a host of other problems, which is why i love this old knacker so much, first major prob it's had.
i'ts never really been viable to fix this car up, we can't resell it, when he got it none of us knew anything about cars and he just wanted something cheap, now we are just going to use it until it dies, get our money's worth.