Seat Leon trouble

Darwin

Hi all, any help with this would be most appreciated. I'm no mechanic, so please bear with me...My brother has a Seat Leon (00 reg, 50K miles approx) and was driving it home on the M50 yesterday when something gave on the engine, and the car jumped out of fifth gear (no warning lights on dash at all). When he got home I listened to it idling and it seemed normal enough. But in driving in first, second or third there's an awful racket from it, fourth gear seems ok. Would I be right in thinking there's a problem with the transmission ? Will this be an expensive job to fix ? I should mention he purchased the car privately about 6 months but has neglected to get it serviced since. Thanks for any suggestions...

RicardoSmith

Sounds like the gearbox has major problem. It might be repairable. You'd need to get it to a garage. But you'd be looking at anywhere from 200 to 600 to get it fixed I'd be guessing.

mike65

Yep that sounds fairly terminal for something in the box, you may be lucky and it turns out to be the selector fork and hopefully no other damage has been done.

Mike.

RicardoSmith

Avoid driving it if you can. It will only make the problem worse. It might seize in gear and you won't be able to move the car at all.

Darwin

Ok guys thanks for the advice.

HashSlinging

gearbox is knackered. was over-due to get gear oil changed. Also although its nothing related it's over due the timing belt replacment (45k). Get them to do it when its getting the gearbox done, looking at about 150 euros on top of the gearbox, if the timing belt goes your talking bye bye engine hello bank manager!

BrianD3

was over-due to get gear oil changed

Where'd you get that from? I'm not familiar with Seats but most manufacturers don't quote any interval for changing manual gearbox oil and certainly not at a low mileage of 50k. Gear oil should last the life of the car. Many boxes don't even have a drain plug so there is no way of changing the oil even if you wanted to.

The only way that gear oil would cause a major gearbox failure at 50k miles is if the box had a leak and all the oil leaked out or maybe if the oil became heavily contaminated with water. Neither of which should happen as the box is a closed system

BrianD3

RicardoSmith

You could be right. But my old Honda CRX had an interval for gear oil change though. Don't think I've seen it in any other car.

But I agree with you, it not what caused the problem unless it leaked out completely. This sounds like something as broken in the gearbox which will cause even more damage as the bits and swarf go through the cogs. Its either failure due to a fault in a part, or through excessive wear.

duridian

It might be the release bearing in the clutch that is making the noise. This would come with a new clutch kit which you would probably need anyway as breakdown of the bearing causes wear to the centre of the clutch release when you press the clutch to change gears. This would not be too bad. The fact that it jumped outta gear doesn't sound too good though, a piece could have chipped off inside the gearbox which would cause major problems if it got caught in the other gears. Defo do not drive until you get a mechanic to check it out properly.

RicardoSmith

The clutch release bearing would make a noise when using the clutch. Not when you're in gear. I had a worn clutch release bearing on my CRX and I drove it for 3 years like that. However if its making noise when in gear, especially a bad noise, there something broken or loose in the gearbox. It could be repairable, and a rebuilt gearbox is cheaper than a new one. But if you drive it you could destroy the rest of gearbox and you'd need a new one. Plus the car could seize in gear and you have to get a transporter to move the car. Which would add alot to your bill.

HashSlinging

I'm an owner of a leon. By memory according to the service book supposed to be done at roughly around 40K, IMO maybe I agree with what you say as oil not being the issue, but if he had of went by the book and brought the interval change to the attention of a mechanic the problem 'probably' would have been noticed, or never came about.

I service mine by the book and at around the 40k service interval, I was having an intermittant problem with ingaging first gear. I checked with the manual, brought gear oil to the attention of the garage, who first off refused to do it until i insisted it cleared up after this service.

Brillant car though. MY01 65k 1.6 still drives like the day I got her. paint work is a different story.

BrianD3

It could still be something simple - like the gear linkage may need adjusting or a gearbox/engine mount may be knackered. Both of these could cause the car to slip out of gear, not sure if they could cause the noises though.

I once had a car which slipped out of gear - the cause was simply a split rubber bush in the linkage.

However I agree that with the slipping out of some gears and nasty sounds coming from within the box it doesn't soudn good and the box may well be f*cked.

As for gear oil, I'm surprised that the Leon needs a change after 40k. That's unusual for a modern vehicle. Are you sure about that? If the Leon needs a change that soon then I guess that all other VAG cars with the same g/box are the same.

BrianD3

HashSlinging

Dunno, it me first car!