Used Car - Is Gearbox Work a Concern?

SeagullFTB

Hi,

We recently bought our first car, a 2017 Kia Sportage from Cinch, and we are currently in the 14 day return period. So far, the car itself has driven absolutely fine and we don't have any complaints.

During our own inspection of the cars, we found the service history, along with a couple of old invoices for servicing back to 2021. We also found an invoice for c£600 which said that work had been carried out on the gearbox. It stated that the bearings were replaced along with some other generic things like re-lubing. The invoice itself was quite vague.

Admittedly, we don't know much about mechanics. Is this something to be concerned about? Is it a sign that we may have future, expensive problems? Or is it simply a sign that something needed fixing and was fixed. Based on the MOT around the time of the repair, the car has done another 10,000 miles since (54,0000 total).

Thank you.

Goudy

I think £600 wouldn't go far on an internal gearbox issue.
Getting it out, stripping it down, replacing internals then building it back up and refitting it would likely cost double or even triple that.

It would perhaps be more suited to something like removing the gearbox, fitting a clutch and/or clutch release bearing, topping off the gearbox oil and refitting it all.

SeagullFTB

Goudy said:

I think £600 wouldn't go far on an internal gearbox issue.
Getting it out, stripping it down, replacing internals then building it back up and refitting it would likely cost double or even triple that.

It would perhaps be more suited to something like removing the gearbox, fitting a clutch and/or clutch release bearing, topping off the gearbox oil and refitting it all.

So with that in mind, is it something to be concerned about or just something routine?

Goudy

Without anymore information it's difficult to tell.

Herzlos

Where was the invoice from? Kia, a gearbox specialist or a random backstreet garage? It's possible they may be able to give you some more information as long as they don't violate GDPR regarding the previous owner but I can't see how a gearbox issue would fall under personal information.

It's probably just indicative of an issue that's been resolved, if it was bodged they probably wouldn't have got an invoice.

If you're worried, can you get a local garage to give it a quick inspection?

Ditzy_Mitzy

What sort of gearbox is it?  Manual and automatic are very different propositions.  All cars can break and most can be repaired.  If it works now, I wouldn't worry.  

forgotmyname

I bought a car with a £1000+ bill that just said gearbox, assumed a new DMF and clutch kit at that price.

No clutch/gearbox issues and it was the best gearchange of any front wheel drive car I have owned.

SeagullFTB

Ditzy_Mitzy said:

What sort of gearbox is it?  Manual and automatic are very different propositions.  All cars can break and most can be repaired.  If it works now, I wouldn't worry.  

It's manual. It seems to be running fine now, so fingers crossed everything is okay.

Thanks everyone.