I have a had a minor niggling problem for months now relating to a clunky change between 1 - 2 and 2 - 3. The clunkiness is there most of the time and, originally, I thought there was some crunching. Following a search od the archives, there seems to be a few of you lads and lasses who have had similar symptoms which have led to replacement 'boxes.
I told the garage who did my last service about this and they said it sounded like the symptoms of a gearbox which had been thrashed and may be early signs of its impending demise - although they said they couldnt detect a problem and that my car didnt appear to have been thrashed (which is true!!). They also said it was unusual for a car with 35k miles on to have such a problem.
Now, I got a second opinion from a mechanic friend. He took it for a test run and suggested that the clunking noise / friction appeared to originate from around the lever itself - there is a nylon ball, which had a lot of powdered plastic around it, suggesting some friction. After throwing a gallon of grease on this ball and the linkages, the problem improved a bit. It didnt go away though. He said that there was no actual crunching from the gearbox itself.
The clunking has started to annoy me now and appears to be getting a bit worse. I am just wondering whether this could be a problem with the gear linkages rather than the actual gear box - or is this just wishful thinking?! I am not sure of the way forward. Like a lot of people, I am wary that if I take it to the dealership, they will either tell me to go away and stop bothering them or say [sharp intake of breath] " need a new gearbox sir, that'll be £1000 please".
I would be interested to hear of anyone with similar experience - so that I can at least go to the garage with a better idea of the possibilities...
PS, sorry for the essay!!
I told the garage who did my last service about this and they said it sounded like the symptoms of a gearbox which had been thrashed and may be early signs of its impending demise - although they said they couldnt detect a problem and that my car didnt appear to have been thrashed (which is true!!). They also said it was unusual for a car with 35k miles on to have such a problem.
Now, I got a second opinion from a mechanic friend. He took it for a test run and suggested that the clunking noise / friction appeared to originate from around the lever itself - there is a nylon ball, which had a lot of powdered plastic around it, suggesting some friction. After throwing a gallon of grease on this ball and the linkages, the problem improved a bit. It didnt go away though. He said that there was no actual crunching from the gearbox itself.
The clunking has started to annoy me now and appears to be getting a bit worse. I am just wondering whether this could be a problem with the gear linkages rather than the actual gear box - or is this just wishful thinking?! I am not sure of the way forward. Like a lot of people, I am wary that if I take it to the dealership, they will either tell me to go away and stop bothering them or say [sharp intake of breath] " need a new gearbox sir, that'll be £1000 please".
I would be interested to hear of anyone with similar experience - so that I can at least go to the garage with a better idea of the possibilities...
PS, sorry for the essay!!
