Hi all,

 

The other day I was underneath my superb which I recently bought doing and oil change and noticed that the gearbox of the car is painted black. Does anyone know if the gearboxes come painted black from the factory?

This may seem like a strange question but I am trying to figure out if the car has had a reconditioned gearbox fitted at some point. I understand that this engine and gearbox combination suffered from clutch failures which would also take out the gearbox. My car has currently done 78k miles and I'm thinking the clutch may already have gone on it as from what I have seen on forums maybe 70% to 80% of the clut failures occurred at 30k to 60k miles. Any information on this topic would be much appreciated.

Sounds possible, my old mk2 had the clutch destroy the gearbox at around 55k miles and the original was definitely plain alloy silver coloured from the photos I’ve got at the time. Mine had the bell housing replaced with the gearbox completely overhauled new bearings and 6th gear replaced due to oil starvation damage plus a new clutch and flywheel with little change from £2k 

Are you sure it's paint and not just oil residue? The rear main oil seals are known for being a bit weepy, and the oil will tend to stick to the gearbox casing. It looks a lot like black paint unless you're looking very carefully.

Thanks for the replies, I'm pretty sure it's paint as the gearbox is not oily or dirty and in one area what I believe to be the paint is flaking revealing the clean silver alloy underneath.