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BMW 330 Diesel gearbox problem

Hi All

I'm posting this on behalf of a friend of mine who has the above car. It is an 2000 X-reg model and had a manual gearbox (6 speed I think). Recently he has had trouble getting it to go in reverse gear, and when it does it is liable to pop out once you start to move. Having been the the local stealers he's been told that the syncromesh is knackered and it will cost £2,000 to replace it (the whole gearbox), or £1200 for a recondition!!

At first I thought they were having a bubble bath and suspected something simple like the linkage so I advised him to get a couple of opinions from other garages (preferably another dealer and an independent) which he has done and they are all saying the same thing. Now today he has told me the same problem is happening in 1st gear, and reverse makes a noise like "a dying cow" to quote him and doesn't work at all.

The car only has 35,000 genuine miles on it and I'm thinking (if it is indeed a shagged 'box) that there could be a case for a fault from new since no way should a gearbox be knackered after such low mileage, especially on a so-called premium executive saloon. The car is well looked after, is not thrashed around (yes there are some considerate BMW drivers out there!)

Any ideas on how to proceed with this, stuff to check etc before he contacts BMW? Or are they likely to laugh in his face?

Thanks all

Reply to
Andrew Ratcliffe
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Synchro? On reverse? Someone's having a laugh, surely. Could be the clutch not fully disengaging or him not holding the clutch down long enough.

Reply to
Doki

Exactly, why I though he's been getting the run-around since I don't know many cars with synchro on reverse. But as the problem is happening in 1st aswell perhaps there is something in it.

Good point about the clutch though. Any ideas if this car has a self adjusting mechanism that may not have, er, self adjusted :)

Reply to
Andrew Ratcliffe

Arghh typing too fast today!

Reply to
Andrew Ratcliffe

Nope - saves it crunching. Many cars in the last 20 odd years have got it.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

So the garage(s) could be telling the truth then? In which case I'm gutted for him :(

Reply to
Andrew Ratcliffe

Getrag boxes often have syncro on reverse.

Reply to
Tim S Kemp

Even so, I'd have thought you could work round the synchro being knackered by treating it as a non synchro reverse gear - ie, clutch in for longer.

Reply to
Doki

Some boxes do have reverse synchros IIRC.

J
Reply to
Coyoteboy

2k for a new gearbox is cheap cheap cheap for BMW prices. Last time I was in they were something like 2500 in parts alone.

There have been a number of cases of transmission failures on E46s but of course BMW won't admit that or admit knowledge of any.

Thare was an issue around that time that some boxes were coming out of the factory without the locating dowels between the box and the engine.

One should eb able to change gear and remain in gear without using the clutch at all and if you can do this then the gearbox might be ok but if it's jumping out of gear then something is wrong. The linkages usually are sloppy but it probably something more serious.

Reply to
adder1969

That's surprising considering they don't make the boxes. They're usually quite hard on supplier's faulty parts.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

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