Vectra gearbox - hole in housing

gerryo · 2006-09-25T22:17:50+00:00

Was turning right, heard loud bang.Thought it was a tyre so I stopped but all seemed fine.Drove home, had a look under the bonnet, saw a large-ish hole in thegearbox housing just above the diff. Found a bit of gearbox housing onthe steering gaiters.Lots of red oil everywhere.Seems this is a common problem on Vectras. I have 103K miles on theclock.Car is a 1.8 1998 petrol.Guess I'll be looking for a new or recon gearbox real soon, probably anew clutch as well.Anything else I should do while I'm at it.Anybody know what could have caused this?Was it just age/miles , or stress, or are Vectra gearboxes prone tothis failure mode?Just what exactly happened to make the housing crack like that?Car seems to drive fine, but guess it won't last long with no gear oil.Gerryo

Sep 25, 2006 23 Replies

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gerryo 19 years ago

Interesting theory, the bit of housing that broke free & remained with the car does not appear to have any marks, other than those normally found on a rough casting.

If I peer inside (would love to put a pinhole camera in there), all appears OK, but I can't really tell without removing the diff & thats so much trouble that I might as well get the clutch done + put a recon 'box back in.

Took a look over on the cavweb forums, this seems to be a familiar story. Not many have good words to say about the F18 'box.

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ib 19 years ago

Mine did exactly the same, still drove fine but with a hole in the back of the gearbox and pissing out oil. Got a gearbox from a breakers, £100, got a local clutch /gearbox garage to fit it £200, been fine ever since. If fault puches through the casing, I'd have thought it would punch through anything else.

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gerryo 19 years ago

In hindsight, I had the warnings, used to hear a noise, sort of a rubbing or whirring, lasting a minute or so, sound got faster as speed increased from a standstill, usually when the car was hot e.g, hot day, traffic crawling, engine fan on/off every few minutes.

Could never locate it, did not appear all the time (sometime months between episodes) & when it did, it just was not possible to stop & investigate.

Trying to get a replacement box atm; when repaired, I'll know the next time it=20 happens it's time to change the box ;)

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gerryo 19 years ago

Back on the road with a used box & =A3360 poorer. Got a local to source the box + do the awkward stuff.

Would advise vectra owners to consider a gearbox oil change after

40~50K miles, even if the book says it's not required. Mega pain in the wallet if the box blows & old ones seem to do this if neglected. Maybe better on newer models, I dunno, all those gears grinding up the oil, & they say it does not need servicing.

Sure smells bad after 100K miles, especially when it sprays out all over the engine bay, will need a degrease to remove the fishy smell.

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