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Auto gearbox problems - Vauxhall Carlton

Hello.

I recently bought a J reg Carlton Diplomat with a 2.6 litre engine and an automatic grearbox. After a rather exciting incident involving a lorry tyre in the middle of the night bursting a transmission fluid line between the gearbox and some sort of heat exchanger in the radiator, an expensive recovery operation and some sort of repair job I'm having problems.

After hitting the tyre carcass, I stopped in the next layby to survey the bodywork damage and a bit of swearing I got back in, hit 'D' and went to pull away only to roll backwards gently down the hill. I tried selecting reverse and still nothing under power. I pissed about like this for a few minutes till I gave up, stopped the engine and called the breakdown.

They took it to a garage who effected a repair which involved cutting out the damaged section of pipe, sticking in some hose and jubilee clipping it in place then topping up the fluid. Now the gearbox only seems willing to engage 1st and reverse. When in Drive, I can accelerate as normal but when the gearbox goes for 2nd it hits neutral and revs its nuts off till I either put the stick in "1" or slow down enough to engage 1st again.

There is a button for "snow" which locks it in 3rd for pulling away, nothing happens when this is engaged, the car simply goes nowhere and there is no characteristic gentle shunt when a gear is normally engaged.

It's been driven probably 40 or 50 miles in 1st at 20-30mph (around 3000rpm) as it was in my mates drive and his parents weren't all that chuffed so I took it to my parents house (c: I'm beginning to suspect that if the gearbox wasn't toast it probably is now but perhaps there is still hope.

Sorry about the waffling, I'm a bit gutted about the whole affair, so anyway...

I know very little about autos so was wondering if anyone could tell me whats wrong, if it's possible to fix it myself, if someone like an autobox specialist can fix it/recondition it or if I should try and source a gearbox from a scrappie? Also, how likely is all this for less than £300?

Hope all this makes sense.

Cheers Douglas

Reply to
Douglas Payne
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Running out of fluid quickly as you would with a fractured pipe shouldn't have done any damage, so I'd guess that it's coincidence that one of the clutches has failed - unless dirt was introduced into the fluid at the accident or repair.

You won't get anyone to just fix the box, IMHO, they will all want to do a complete re-con, as the labour is the major part of the job. And you'll not get any change out of a grand - or possibly more.

A secondhand box might be a viable option, but I'd want to test it first as it's a lot of work (and cost) to change it only to find it's faulty as well.

Reply to
Dave Plowman

In my country, typically 1200 to 1600 euro for a normal automatic gearbox re-con.

In my country again, 500 to 800 euro for a used box and 250 euro for changing the boxes, and no guarantee the new box will be all right.

Dag Stenberg, Finland

Reply to
Dag Stenberg

Yes. If it was in the car, and the car badly damaged accident wise, then I suppose it might be fine. But if the car looked ok otherwise, there's a good chance it could have been scrapped because of gearbox troubles.

Reply to
Dave Plowman

before changing the 'box check the fluid level as it sounds to me like you are low on fluid , check this with vauxhall but I think the level should be checked with the engine running and the 'box in neutral

Hope this helps

Radar

Reply to
radar

An auto box of this type requires hydraulic pressure to operate. If the fluid level is below the pump pickup it will not work in any way. If it's only below the 'mark', the transmission may overheat or drop out of gear on cornering etc due to fluid surge.

So topping up in this case - even if needed - won't make any difference.

Reply to
Dave Plowman

Join the club

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a few members have workingautoboxes in the garage they will help you out with! Will

Reply to
Will Reeve

I assume your nowhere near glasgow - pity - theres a guy on=20

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practically giving away a 86 carlton with 4=20 months mot as its got some front end damage .

(also assuming its the right model I suppose)

--=20

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Reply to
CW

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practically giving away a 86 carlton with 4 months mot as its got some front end damage .

(also assuming its the right model I suppose)

Reply to
Douglas Payne

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