"Reconditioning a gearbox" was mentioned

Paulossi

My wife and I were discussing selling our Citroen C4 Grand Picasso 2008 last week. The car must have heard because the clutch stopped working on Friday morning and the car had to be towed to the nearest garage.

Initially the mechanic reckoned it was cost around 1300k to fix (Labour + new flywheel + Clutch + something else -> starting motor maybe?).
Anyway, I gave the go ahead to do a diagnostic and he came back to day to say the gearbox is leaking and it may need to be replaced or reconditioned.
The mechanic said he'd need an expert to look at it.
Now I am worried...

He couldn't even give me an estimate. This sounds bad - am I right? The car is only worth about 6k even though it's, otherwise, in excellent condition.

Anyone have any idea what this cost could potentially be or what my best option might be?

Should I even proceed with this or do I have a choice?

mullingar

Paulossi wrote: »

My wife and I were discussing selling our Citroen C4 Grand Picasso 2008 last week. The car must have heard because the clutch stopped working on Friday morning and the car had to be towed to the nearest garage.

Initially the mechanic reckoned it was cost around 1300k to fix (Labour + new flywheel + Clutch + something else -> starting motor maybe?).
Anyway, I gave the go ahead to do a diagnostic and he came back to day to say the gearbox is leaking and it may need to be replaced or reconditioned.
The mechanic said he'd need an expert to look at it.
Now I am worried...

He couldn't even give me an estimate. This sounds bad - am I right? The car is only worth about 6k even though it's, otherwise, in excellent condition.

Anyone have any idea what this cost could potentially be or what my best option might be?

Should I even proceed with this or do I have a choice?

You have a choice. Just say I need a second opinion and get it collected from them and pay for their time "diagnosing" it.

But what mechanic needs to call in an expert if the gearbox is leaking? Does it have that fancy semi-automatic gearbox in it? <- that would put off a lot of indy garages
If the clutch suddenly stopped working, the dual mass flywheel may have disintegrated, so its standard practice to replace the clutch and its slave cylinder too. These parts are around €800, so that means fitting is an extra €500. Was there any funny noises up until failure? What mileage is on it? I assume its the 1.6 HDI???

Paulossi

mullingar wrote: »

But what mechanic needs to call in an expert if the gearbox is leaking? Does it have that fancy semi-automatic gearbox in it? <- that would put off a lot of indy garages

Hmm, yeah it did strike me a bit unusual. It has an auto hand brake but that is about the only slightly different thing in it. It is a 5 speed Manual trans so nothing fancy as far as I can see.

mullingar wrote: »

Was there any funny noises up until failure? What mileage is on it? I assume its the 1.6 HDI???

Yeah a squeaking the day/night before when pressing on the clutch slightly. It happened pretty suddenly. It has 80k and your correct - 1.6 HDI.
I reckon from looking online it would have been worth about 8k as a private sale - before this. Don't think anyone would buy it now / or after whatever has to happen. Maybe I'm wrong.

Paulossi

Just spoke to the mechanic again. If an "expert" is to look at it he will have to strip it back. That would ruin any chance of getting a scrapage deal anywhere and will cost me.

So I don't know whether to try and get this fixed and trade in / sell (although who'd buy a car that has just had a gearbox reconditioned?)or as you say just pay for work done to date and scrap it.

I guess if the repairs where to be around 2.5k or less it would be worth it. Anymore and I 'd be better off getting rid. Problem is no one can tell me with out putting in time and money!

H3llR4iser

I don't see why a reconditioned gearbox would be an issue selling the car - if anything, it should be a strength rather than a weakness, a reconditioned 'box should be as good as new.

Now, about the cost, keep in mind that the bulk of it is actually the labour - taking the gearbox off of a car is a major b1tch of a job. If you get the whole stuff done at the same time (clutch, flywheel and 'box) it should save you a bit, since you won't pay twice for taking the 'box out and put it in again.

Also, why scrap the car? If it's got a value of about 6k, even if you need to pay 2000 or 2500 to fix it, you'd still be 3.5k up. If you scrap it, you'd get nothing - but have to pay for a replacement...unless you plan on having no car.

Paulossi

Yeah I agree. My wife doesn't though. She wants a hassle free life. I guess the problem is we don't have any clue how much it might cost. No one will commit to giving me even a ball park (or worst case even) scenario.

How much does fitting a reconditioned gear box even cost? Generally speaking. Are we talking 2/3 k or 5/6 k or something else.

colm_mcm

Paying a few hundred a month on finance every single month for the next few years isn't hassle free either.
A reconditioned box isn't thousands, and will give you a bit of peace of mind that you won't get from a second hand one straight from a scrapper.


Give naas gearbox centre a call, and basically ask for a price for a recon box, full clutch and flywheel. Just for comparison, at least you'll be able to have a proper conversation with the mechanic with the benefit of a bit more knowledge.

mcbobbyb

Bring it to a place that does reconditioned gearbox. They'll keep yours when there done and know what there doing. Should be a lot cheaper and quick if they have your engine in stock. I had an old xsara done a few years back in wexford.

H3llR4iser

I'm not sure about the Peugeot, I had the M32 'box in my Alfa 159 reconditioned (bearings, the gears themselves were fine) and it came at around 1200; Of that, only about 300 were spares, the rest labour.

Before that, I had the clutch+flywheel replaced and it was around 1300 from Alfa Romeo themselves, with the spares coming in at about 600 and 700 for the labour.

I had no choice but to the jobs separately, as the clutch plate worn its last bits in January 2015 (after 130k Km, so essentially not a surprise) and the bearings started giving serious trouble in June - when I had the gearbox specialist do the job, he noticed the brand new clutch and flywheel and commented that, had I done the whole thing at the same time (clutch, flywheel, reconditioning), he would have asked about 1600-1800 Euro for all; everything had to come off of the car and be put back in anyways, so I technically paid for the same labour twice.


Of course that's just an indication based on previous experience - as Colm suggested, if you call or visit a gearbox specialist, chances are they have seen a similar problem before and might be able to at least give you a "ballpark" estimate.

ba_barabus

colm_mcm wrote: »

Give naas gearbox centre a call, and basically ask for a price for a recon box, full clutch and flywheel.

I picked my car up from them yesterday and would highly recommend them. Very efficient and clear about the issues and they gave me a free courtesy car.

For the above work on my car I paid a smidge over 2k and they gave me a discount to bring it to that plus a free car. Very efficient too as everything was done when they said it would be.

gctest50

Paulossi wrote: »

Yeah I agree. My wife doesn't though. She wants a hassle free life. I guess the problem is we don't have any clue how much it might cost. No one will commit to giving me even a ball park (or worst case even) scenario.

How much does fitting a reconditioned gear box even cost? Generally speaking. Are we talking 2/3 k or 5/6 k or something else.

Free fitting special offer :

http://www.naasgearboxcentre.ie/specialoffers.html

Free fitting

• Massive savings
• Save yourself hundreds of euro by having your replacement gearbox fitted at Naas Gearbox Centre free of charge
• Offer applies to retail and Naas Branch only

Paulossi

Naas a bit too far away but I have decided to get it towed to the Redcow gearbox centre based on above. Spoke to Tommy there and he really seemed to know his stuff (and didn't need an expert to advise!). Fingers crossed.

Thanks for the advice.

ba_barabus

Paulossi wrote: »

Naas a bit too far away but I have decided to get it towed to the Redcow gearbox centre based on above. Spoke to Tommy there and he really seemed to know his stuff (and didn't need an expert to advise!). Fingers crossed.

Thanks for the advice.

They were my second choice and I'd fully agree with the rest of what you said. I know some main dealers use them also for gearbox reconditioning.