I've got a 98 Megane 1.6e RT Sport, done 87,000 miles. On Monday was trying to drive to Sheffield from Manchester during the very heavy rains. Was driving through 2-3" of water on a flooded section of road. An HGV came the other way, and passed through the water at about 30mph. The resulting wave went over the roof of my car (and the cars in front and behind), rocking the car on its suspension. The engine continued running and I was able to continue driving. Steam came out of the bonnet for several minutes afterwards, but the temperature gauge stayed at normal.
Since then it has been very difficult to get the car into gear, especially 1st and 2nd - it can take 5-6 attempts of trying to put it into gear, lifting the clutch, depressing the clutch and trying again to get the car into gear. The other gears are also affected, but will usually go into gear at the 2nd attempt. Once in gear, the car drives normally, and all the electronics are working fine.
Given the age of the car, I don't think it's worth doing anything major, but I could spend a few hundred if it'd sort out the gearbox. Is the gearbox likely to continue to detoriate? Is there anything that can be done?
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Hi gd49, first thing to do is drain the gearbox oil and refill with fresh oil, you could have got some water in there.
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I agree with scrapmetal, another possibility may be that water has got into the bell housing and affected the clutch and is causing clutch drag.
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I think I would check the remote gearchange to box if the engine was moved around by the water,cant see it getting inside gearbox unless its a large breather on it,bellhousing yes but water should not affect clutch IMO
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I was thinking that water and clutch dust may have made a nice goo to stick the clutch plate to its splines
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I have experienced the same problem some years ago with a Peugeot 106(D).
The stiffness of the gearchange after wading (no engine problems) was extreme, and there was no visible evidence of water contamination of the gear oil - and the level was correct.
A change of gearbox oil completely cured the problem - that was 80k miles ago and the gearbox is still fine.
I think that even a minute amount of water comtamination of a semi-synth gear oil completely destroys its lubricity.
659.
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Thanks for the replies, garage tried changing the gearbox oil, didn't fix the problem, so are going to change the clutch.
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