Recommendation for gearbox specialist South London / Croydon

[atconc]

Hi All

Long time lurker, first time posting and in need of a recommendation please.

The gearbox in my Mk1 LCR is making a loud whine when off throttle in 3rd, which seems to be getting worse over the 6 months I've had it so far and sounds similar to other threads on here where there's problems with the gearbox casing. I'm also having the problems with the clutch which i think is DMF related. So most likely while the gearbox is off I'm going to want to get the clutch and DMF replaced also.

Is anyone able to recommend a gearbox specialist in the South London / Croydon / Surrey area (I'm in SE25) that will be able to diagnose and if necessary recon the gearbox and do the clutch work at the same time? Also if anyone's had similar work done recently would you be willing to let me know what it cost you (PM is fine if you don't want to broadcast it) I'm guessing I need to budget somewhere in the region of £1300. Anything else I should be aware of when I get the work done?

thanks.

 

[PSX]

Welcome - what sort of clutch problem are you having? I have seen quotations from a company BET Transmissions in Milton Keynes for £410 (box out, whine repaired, box back in). Your job would cost a little more...

Alex

 

[diddles]

I would also like to know that as I am based in croydon and have the same problem with my lcr box!

 

[atconc]

Welcome - what sort of clutch problem are you having? I have seen quotations from a company BET Transmissions in Milton Keynes for £410 (box out, whine repaired, box back in). Your job would cost a little more...

Alex

Thanks for the welcome and the price info. Clutch problems are as follows:

• Biting point is very low especially when the car is cold and engages with a jolt when cold.
• Has got stuck in first gear a couple of times and needed a real jolt to get out, when this happens the car will try and creep forward even when the clutch is pressed all the way to the floor.
• Vibration through the car when idling
• Occasional chattering noise at idle and when engaging the clutch

My usual garage recommended it goes to a gearbox specialist, from a test drive they felt the gearbox definatly needs looking at but they weren't 100% on the DMF being problematic and as they don't do gearbox work it's not worth having them take the gearbox off to investigate the DMF.

 

[Lord FlashheaRt]

Looks like you're in the same boat as me. Lucky for me I'm in the trade but it's still gonna cost a fortune.

From what you are saying you may have 3 problems all at once. The chatter is very likely the DMF or possibly just the release bearing, but to be fair, you may as well replace the DMF while the box is out anyway unless its near perfect when checked. The box problem, like mine is a box problem. And the low biting point could be a worn clutch, a leaking/worn concentric slave cylinder not releasing the clutch properly or could possibly be down to excessive play in the DMF (although this is least likely).

So basically you are looking at gearbox out, new clutch, slave and DMF, then what ever repair is due on the gearbox. It will be pricey but worth it when its all done. I'd like to know how you get on price wise as I'm torn between having the gearbox rebuilt (baring in mind its done 101k) or just chucking in a 2nd hand one with lower mileage.

Also, EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAGLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[atconc]

Looks like you're in the same boat as me. Lucky for me I'm in the trade but it's still gonna cost a fortune.

From what you are saying you may have 3 problems all at once. The chatter is very likely the DMF or possibly just the release bearing, but to be fair, you may as well replace the DMF while the box is out anyway unless its near perfect when checked. The box problem, like mine is a box problem. And the low biting point could be a worn clutch, a leaking/worn concentric slave cylinder not releasing the clutch properly or could possibly be down to excessive play in the DMF (although this is least likely).

So basically you are looking at gearbox out, new clutch, slave and DMF, then what ever repair is due on the gearbox. It will be pricey but worth it when its all done. I'd like to know how you get on price wise as I'm torn between having the gearbox rebuilt (baring in mind its done 101k) or just chucking in a 2nd hand one with lower mileage.

I'd pretty much come to the same conclusion about having multiple problems and as a big chunk of the cost is going to be the labour taking it all apart I might as well do clutch / DMF and box altogether and then rest easy that the drivetrain is good.

My car has done about 85k miles, I had decided that reconditioning the existing box was a better idea as it will have been inspected and sorted out and the work should be guaranteed whereas with a second hand box you don't have any way to know if it's going to develop it's own problem next week.

Also, EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAGLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm not a big football fan, but yes I can hear it in my kitchen if they score! Are you local? I've found a gearbox place in Carshalton called ksmautos (I don't have enough posts to link but add .co.uk to their name...) but not been able to find any reviews or recommendations.

 

[Lord FlashheaRt]

I'm actually in Crawley. Need to have a good think about the best way forward for me. I'm thinking a rebuild is likely to cost a fortune compared to maybe swapping boxes every couple of years.

 

[Lord FlashheaRt]

It says they are an auto-transmission specialist.

 

[atconc]

It says they are an auto-transmission specialist.

I saw that but have been told they do manual boxes too. What kind of money have you seen 2nd hand boxes for? I thought getting the existing box repaired was going to be in the 5-600 bracket do you think that's low or are 2nd hand boxes really cheap?

 

[Lord FlashheaRt]

I've seen ones with 40k on the clock for around £400. I might be picking up one on Sunday that's covered 83k which is out of a Golf anni. It's the same gearbox code as mine. Rather ironically the code is FML.

 

[gus20vt]

have you looked into sf conversions? for clutch side of things?

 

[Lord FlashheaRt]

I would never fit a single mass conversion. Plenty of people have had no bother with them but they are designed to protect the crank and transmission from high torque stresses. Dual mass flywheels have come down loads in price and when you look into prices you will probably find they are pretty much the same price as SM conversions. Just go for an LUK dual mass and clutch kit. LUK were the company who designed the dual mass flywheel. I think it was developed with BMW. DMFs have a bit of a bad rep but that's not really fair anymore. Most failures are down to poor driving.

 

[Lord FlashheaRt]

Sorry, just realised the start of that may have been confusing. I was destracted by England being shite. It was meant to say that the DMF is designed to protect etc etc. I'm sure you could work that out though.

 

[BoostHard]

Just an idea, but why don't you try and get the box out your self?
You can then send the box away to be repaired and fit the clutch and flywheel whilst the box is away.
It's not too difficult to pull it apart.

 

[atconc]

Sorry, just realised the start of that may have been confusing. I was destracted by England being shite. It was meant to say that the DMF is designed to protect etc etc. I'm sure you could work that out though.

Yep I've read mixed things about SMF conversions and so was planning to stick with a DMF setup.

Just an idea, but why don't you try and get the box out your self?
You can then send the box away to be repaired and fit the clutch and flywheel whilst the box is away.
It's not too difficult to pull it apart.

I'd love to do it myself but my mechanical skills end with changing the headlight bulbs or swapping out a head unit! I don't think I'd be capible of removing a gearbox and replacing the clutch and DMF myself. I don't have any off street parking or many tools either so even if I had the skills and the confidence it's not really practical for me. One day when I have more space and some time I would really like to learn how to do this sort of work myself.

For now though I'm happy to pay for someone who knows what they're doing to do the work, just hoping to find somewhere that I can feel confident will do a good job on such a big expensive piece of work.


Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 2

 

[atconc]

Just thought I'd post an update - in the end I took the car to VGSUK in New Addington, they replaced the clutch and DMF and diagnosed the noise as the release bearing having collapsed. I've had the car back for almost a week and so far so good, clutch is much lighter and engaging smoothly and the noise in 3rd is gone. The car feels more responsive overall, which might be a placebo effect I suppose... Very happy and now thinking about a Stage 1 revo map with my Christmas money, just need to see what it'll do to the insurance premium first...

 

[PSX]

Glad it's fixed! Depending on your age and insurance provider, I found that a stage 1 map would add between £0 and £100 to the policy. Worthwhile in my opinion. Keep an eye out though for the whining on overrun - 1st to 4th gears - better to get that fixed before the casing becomes unrepairable.

Alex

 

[atconc]

Glad it's fixed! Depending on your age and insurance provider, I found that a stage 1 map would add between £0 and £100 to the policy. Worthwhile in my opinion. Keep an eye out though for the whining on overrun - 1st to 4th gears - better to get that fixed before the casing becomes unrepairable.

Alex

I only had whining in 3rd on the overrun and that seems to have gone with the new bearings so fingers crossed I'm good for now!

It turns out my insurer (Admiral) will cover cars that are "super chipped" but not remapped, he started to give me a quote but when he started talking about chips I made myself very clear that it's a remap not a chip and he went to check with a supervisor, came back and said it's a good job you checked, remap = instant decline.

So I tried greenlight, who specialise in modified cars and they beat my current insurance price, with the remap added. I realised after I forgot to ask about protected no claims, so adding that might take me up to about the same as I'm paying now I guess, but it looks like it's not going to cost any extra at least. So car is booked in on Thurs for revo stage 1, exciting times!

 

[heggie]

How much was it for the clutch change dude?

 

[atconc]

1075 + vat for clutch + DMF + gearbox repair (2 new bearings + 2 selector forks repalced)