I was driving along, car was fully warmed up, I pulled out of a junction changed into 2nd, hit 4000rpm and bang! Horrible metal crunching and ground to a halt! Drained the gearbox oil it was full of metal bits
Car has done 91k, gearbox has gone for a rebuild as a new one was 2.5k!
Is this a common thing on the 5 speed box?

 

Yes if it is running more power that standard, It all depends on what sort of life they have had, Lauches etc....

you could get a full 6-speed conversion for way less than 2.5k these days

 

Hope fully the reconditioned box should last a few years, but I've no idea what power I'm running at the moment! But the box went just as the torque was building up