maxedlude

Could anyone advise of the signs of any crank problems?

To cut a long story short i brought a car on thursday that broke down after two hours of picking it up. The car goes into any gear fine(supposed to have had a recon gear box only last week) but when you put the cluch up the car goes no where! There is a grinding noise coming from the gear box area when the car is running but is worse when it is in gear with the clutch up. The speedo still works though. When on the ramps the back wheels move but the front dont!

Before it all went wrong the car was very shaky, vibrating as if the wheels were going to fall off and the gear box was making a horrible noise. The car also jolted a bit when first put into gear and pulling off!

The garage are rip off merchants, looks like i'm going to have to go to court!

Any ideas would help. More likely to be the gearbox or Crank issues? or both ? or anything else?

Any advice would be brilliant.

Splitpin

Bad news chap, not the way to welcome you to Scoobynet!

On the face of what you've said so far it's almost certain to be gearbox, and, given that the box has supposedly just been changed, it sounds rather as though the "recon" unit that has been fitted is the wrong type for your particular model - and has the wrong front diff final drive and/or dropgear ratios.

Fitting a 'box that is mismatched in this way will stress out the centre diff, causing nasty vibrations (and evil handling), until the diff fails leaving with you with either 2wd or no drive at all - a set of symptoms that fits what you're reporting almost exactly. The speedo still works because the sender is fitted to the gearbox output shaft, but if the centre diff is knackered, the power doesn't go anywhere...

It'll help us help you work out what's going on if you could tell us what exact model (and model year) of Impreza you've got. Also, pop the bonnet and look for the gearbox code number - which should be on a white sticker stuck around the top of the bellhousing by the starter motor. If you stand next to the left hand front wheel and look under the intercooler you should be able to see it. The transmission code is a series of letters and numbers that should begin "TY75....."

Edited to add: Just seen your other post, is it a UK spec MY2002 WRX you've got? If so, have a look for that transmission code and we'll be able to tell you straight away whether the right (or wrong) gearbox has been fitted.

maxedlude

Thanks for the advice the number on the gearbox just fitted is

HC - TY754vbaaa

i have a 2002 subaru impreza wrx. the transmition number on the vn plate is ty754vn2aa.

Hope this is clear enough, i'm well confused.

Splitpin

Yeah there you go, QED. As you say your car would originally have been fitted with a TY754VN2AA. This has a front diff crownwheel to pinion ratio of 3.9 to 1 and 1.1:1 dropgears, intended to mate with a 3.545:1 rear diff.

The TY754VBAAA has a 4.44:1 front diff ratio (and should have 1.0:1 dropgears). Unless the garage changed the rear diff for the one matching that gearbox (and your symptoms say they didn't), your problem is a result of the "recon gearbox" being the wrong type for your car. The front and rear diff ratios are mismatched, loading up the centre diff which has eventually had enough and failed.

maxedlude

mate you are a star!

Thanks for the advice.

My other concern is though could it have damaged the clutch, flywheel or crank going into the engine or the rear diff?

Just dont want to sorce the correct part for things to start again.

Thanks

Splitpin

It's unlikely that anything else would have been damaged as a direct result of this failure - there will probably be loose bits of metal circulating round inside the gearbox now, but on the assumption you're gonna take the box, in total, off, and replace it with a correct one, everything should be fine afterwards.

However, all that said, the one thing this proves though is that whoever sold you this car either knows next to ****-all, or doesn't care. It would, ironically, have been easier for them to source a replacement UK spec gearbox to fit to your car than it would be to do what they've done (i.e fit an import one). The fact that they're ignorant of little details like final drive ratios, let alone that they sold you a car they must have known was vibrating itself to death, suggests that you might want to have it properly looked over, to make sure there's nothing else going to jump out and bite you, before committing yourself (at their expense!) to putting this issue right.

gpssti4

iTrader: (6)

Did you buy from the garage? If so I would assume that you have warranty with it - even if they say 'no' I believe that you do have 3-6 months - perhaps someone will confirm. Good luck, hope you get it sorted.

ian.b

Splitpin is a legend

maxedlude

Yeah i did buy from a garage with a 3 month warranty but when i brought the car i was told it has just (that week) had a recon gear box put in as the old one was very noisey. This meant the warraty company now said it was the garages problem to sort as they had just done the work, we now know incorretly.

The garage are using a law company and trying to bully me into either getting the car to them to repair AT MY COST! (about £300.00 to get it transported) or £ 700.00 in settlement for me to source and fit the part! I'm finding it real difficult to find a recon box with any decent warranty for under £900.00 plus fitting of £350.00 (7hours work)

Stuck between a rock and a hard place, do i accept or take them to court which could take months.

Trading standards are on my side and my solicitor is confident we would win BUT even if i get a judgement they may not pay and i'd have to take them back to court again to enforce baliffs.

It's a nightmare....................

joz8968

iTrader: (13)

Aren't these particular 'boxes' gears prone to <ahem>... shearing.

maxedlude

So i guess i need to find and fit a gear box with the same trans number TY754VN2AA, and that should be ok?

Sounds stupid to ask but better to understand properly than **** things up again!!

Splitpin

The warranty company do have a point. They're there to fix things that go wrong after you buy it, whereas in this case the car was sold with a serious underlying fault, so it is the dealer's responsibility to put right. However, if the warranty came with the car (as opposed to you buying it after the fact), that means they will be dealing with this dealer on a regular basis and so you might be able to use them for a bit of leverage...

Well, to use the time-honoured phrase, they would, wouldn't they?!
Were they giving you this attitude before or after you confronted them with the info you've learned from this thread, incidentally?

The one thing I would avoid, if I were you, would be this mob repairing the car. We already know that they are either terminally careless or inept, and you are also highly likely to get the automotive equivalent of the chef gobbing in returned food. Far better to get someone you can trust to fit the new box. While you're at it it'd be worth paying them a few quid to give the rest of the car a look over.

There are other options. One of which (check with Trading Standards to see if this applies) could be to reject the car.

The other one would be to make clear to the garage that you now have absolutely incontrovertible evidence that they caused this problem by fitting the wrong gearbox; that you are about to visit a Subaru main dealer to get a letter from them confirming this, and that you are about to visit Trading Standards, and then your solicitor, making clear to both that this garage knowingly sold a car that must have been exhibiting severe vibrations and handling problems to the point of possibly making it dangerous to drive.

While you're at it, phone, email and write to the warranty company making clear your contention that this dealer knowingly sells cars that are exhibiting serious mechanical problems, to the point of effectively being guaranteed to break down, and in a manner that would cause serious handling problems (therefore compromising road safesty). Ask them if they are content to continue to deal with the consequences of insuring cars sold by this mob, and if the answer is yes, ask them why.

If you go in there with your facts straight and with a bit of dog about you, with a bit of luck the garage will eventually concede that they'll incur far less hassle and expense paying for you to have a replacement gearbox fitted elsewhere than trying to front this one out.

Any UK WRX box up to, I think, MY05, would be a drop-in replacement. So, another 2AA, or a TY754VN3AA, TY754VN4AA, or TY754VN5AA would all do the job fine. MY05 (I think!) there are differences to the front driveshaft joints and oil seals, and the clutch. I may be wrong on the year these changes came in so hopefully someone will correct me if this is the case.