Driving to work a couple of hours ago my gear box made a "pop" "bang" and "scream".

The pop sounded like something bursting through the gearbox casing, the bang something hitting the underside of my car and the screaming persisted until I pulled into work and stopped......

The car is a 2006 Fabia VRS with 74,000 on the clock.

I had noticed that the gearbox was getting slightly noisy last night and had it booked in with the old man for a check up on Saturday (he's a mechanic).

It didn’t sound healthy, but it also didn’t sound like failure was imminent…

Needless to say it’s parked in at work with a pool of oil underneath.

So, what’s next?

I have had a quick look on the net and recon boxes seem to be circa £600, I can live with that, but I might as well change the clutch whilst I’m there and not too sure about the DMF to be honest.

Any advice or sympathy would be much appreciated.

The 6 month warranty I got with the car expired last month…ouch.

Just realised that this is my first post, been lurking a while although I was sure I introduced myself. Obviously not!

Edited 24 August, 201213 yr by craigclavin

I can really sympathise with you as pretty much the same thing happened to me very recently.

Our symptoms had been a little more persistant and going on for a while.

Ours had become very hard to get into 1st and also 2nd and 3rd were very crunchy. An oil change didn't cure this and shortly after a whining noise started in 1st and 2nd. Before I could get it to the garage it started making a very loud knocking noise whih left if undriveable.

Basically the gearbox had gone (bearings were the suspect).

The garage took the box off and sent it to a gearbox specialist. Was quoted £485 + vat for the rebuild. Turns out there was damage to the casing so they gave me a reconditioned box for the same £485 + vat.

It is definitely worth changing the clucth while you're there. The DMF the garage will be able to advise on once they get it off and have a look at it.

My garage allowed me to supply my own clutch and DMF (from euro car parts for £360). Made a big difference to how the car drives. They said the DMF had some signs of wear and could be ok for a while longer but couldn't guarantee it so I just got it replaced anyway.

Cost me just shy of £1200 altogether.

My sympathies and hope you get it sorted soon.

Phil

Thanks Phil, it's just a great car and I really had high hopes of doing intergalactic miles without fault as so many people have reported.

Not to worry, these things happen I guess,

Nothing a beer and cold shower won't sort.

Thanks Phil, it's just a great car and I really had high hopes of doing intergalactic miles without fault as so many people have reported.

Not to worry, these things happen I guess,

Nothing a beer and cold shower won't sort.

Yeh the annoying this is though the internet is littered with people with similar problems so there must be some questionable build quality gone into these boxes.

Even cases of 1/2 year old cars with 20k miles and the box going.

I think they might have made them out of some soft edam cheese.

And yes... not much you can do but calm down and ready the credit card!

Phil

I managed to have a quick look on my lunch break...

Needless to say I have found the culprit.

Not as bad as I thought, although is this a "top hat" type bearing? i.e. gearbox out job to replace?

Left my darn Haynes at home.

If anyone has any clues to the part number (cant find it on vagcat) it would be appreciated.

All I can come up from the knackered bearing is 07M 301 377 B, and GC 79 9.8 W02, again, these arent on vagcat.

If it indeed can only be inserted from the other side, its gonna be an expensive fix to pull out the box and dismantle....

The 6 month warranty I got with the car expired last month…ouch.

I would go back to the garage, tell them whats happened.

If they refuse to help out with the bill, start mentioning citizen's advice, and not fit for purpose

Nothing worse than finding posts on the net that don’t "finish", so here is the outcome of the above....

Well Phil, I ended up beating you in the end.

Total Repair bill was £1260.00

That’s recon box, clutch kit, DMF, slave cylinder and labour.

Ouch....This has been done and paid and it’s taken me a day or two to come to terms with it enough to put it up on here.

The car does drive superb now however; it’s never driven so well in fact. Just a shame I had to pay so much for the privilege.

I would go back to the garage, tell them whats happened.

If they refuse to help out with the bill, start mentioning citizen's advice, and not fit for purpose

I seriously thought about this Mikey, however the garage did give me a free 6 month RAC warranty (like its worth the paper its written on) which has recently expired, so I can't expect them to cough up for my bad luck.

Nothing worse than finding posts on the net that don’t "finish", so here is the outcome of the above....

Well Phil, I ended up beating you in the end.

Total Repair bill was £1260.00

That’s recon box, clutch kit, DMF, slave cylinder and labour.

Ouch....This has been done and paid and it’s taken me a day or two to come to terms with it enough to put it up on here.

The car does drive superb now however; it’s never driven so well in fact. Just a shame I had to pay so much for the privilege.

It's a bitter pill to swallow isn't it.

We felt exactly the same about ours.

Like yous ours is now driving better than it ever has and we still really enjoy the car especially with the freshly cleaned EGR it seems to be really pulling very strong.

Going to Germany on Monday so will see how we get on... I'm pretty convinced I can beat my previous record of a GPS speed of 138mph...