Zafira 1.8 gearbox failure

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Mon 27 Sep 2004 12:14
Zafira 1.8 gearbox failure - zafirakev
My 3 and a half year old Zafira broke down on Friday. Vauxhall dealer says it needs a new gearbox. It has been serviced by Vauxhall from new. I think that is unacceptable on a car with 45000 miles. Have others had problems with gearboxes? Am currently waiting on a response from Vauxhall.
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Mon 27 Sep 2004 13:26
Zafira 1.8 gearbox failure - Dynamic Dave
Have others had problems with gearboxes?


One conversation recently cropped up:-

www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=25493
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Mon 27 Sep 2004 13:50
Zafira 1.8 gearbox failure - Number_Cruncher
It would be quite unusual for a gearbos to fail such that it needed to be replaced. Although Vauxhall's come in for some stick on this forum, their manual gearboxes are usually very reliable. Those that fail, usually give plenty of warning from grumbling bearings first.

number_cruncher
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Mon 27 Sep 2004 15:14
Zafira 1.8 gearbox failure - zafirakev
The noises we got were a whining just before it got stuck in reverse gear and couldnt be pulled out. The Vauxhall dealer who recovered it has opened it up and has said that there is a 'lot of metal in there' and when I asked him he said 'there wasnt enough oil'. This surpised me as it has been regularly serviced by Vauxhall dealers. They havent gone any further with what is wrong because I dont want to pay for the privilege of diagnosing the fault when it shouldnt have broken in the first place. I'm waiting for their customer service people to call me. Some of the scrap yards I have called have indicated that there is a good market in used gearboxes and some dealers stock them on the shelves - one place had 4 of them!
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Mon 27 Sep 2004 17:14
Zafira 1.8 gearbox failure - 9000
Had a similar problem on my Vectra- it turned out that low g box oil had caused the roller bearing to heat up and fall apart locking up the box.

The guy who fixed it showed me the roller bearing and it was quite clearly a very poor design- it looked like a 50p watch strap. I was very surprised to find that GM made g boxes with moving parts that were made of cheap plastic.

I too rang around the scrapyards only to be told by everyone I spoke to that these gearboxes were in such high demand that they were sold as soon as they came in.

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Mon 27 Sep 2004 17:54
Zafira 1.8 gearbox failure - SjB {P}
I was very surprised to find that GM made g boxes with moving parts that were made of cheap plastic.

Although I understand the sentiment of what you write, this is a bit of a sweeping statement to make. Plastic is not necessarily bad, just because it's not metal! Correctly sized, and correctly lubricated, use of non-metal bearing cages can be perfectly okay, and in some cases of course, better than metal.

I had a highly tuned MG Metro that subjected the notoriously marginal A-plus gearbox to much more strain than it was designed for, and when, eventually, it broke, the cause was nothing to do with bearings (A piston ring broke and dropped in to the gearbox-in-sump). On dismantling the gearbox, the plastic caged bearings were perfectly okay at eighty-something thousand miles.

BTW the piston ring that broke was from a piston that had been fitted 180 degrees out of alignment (ie front to back), according to the arrows on the crown!
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Tue 28 Sep 2004 00:26
Zafira 1.8 gearbox failure - Civic8
>>Although I understand the sentiment of what you write, this is a bit of a sweeping statement to make. Plastic is not necessarily bad, just because it's not metal! Correctly sized, and correctly lubricated, use of non-metal bearing cages can be perfectly okay, and in some cases of course, better than metal.

You made the point correctly lubricated.Lack of oil was also a point mentioned. As I recall plastic/nylon bearing cage. Is resistant to oil/water.so has no effect on bearing cage.Heat will do. as bearings failed would assume lack of oil.You also mentioned early metro? fail to see where early one comes into it? different motor?
--
Was mech1
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Mon 27 Sep 2004 20:19
Zafira 1.8 gearbox failure - Dynamic Dave
I was very surprised to find that GM made g boxes with
moving parts that were made of cheap plastic.


Doubt it was actually made by GM. More than likely made by a 3rd party company that Vauxhall just purchase from and use.
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