Vectra gearbox - hole in housing

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.

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 ;)

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.