Mk3 Auto Gearbox Failure

[famousfive]

Hi

 

I haven't been able to find anything on the site but I was wondering if anyone had experienced a similar gearbox failure to the one I had last weekend in my 59K Mk3 Galaxy Zetec TDI Auto.

 

The day after a service and MOT at Hendy Ford at Romsey Hants I was doing a 3 point turn and the gear stick clunked into D and then when I put it into R (another clunk) the car cut out and that was the last I could use it.

 

I had it towed back to Ford and they took all the gearbox electronic plugs out and put them all back (their words) and it started working again so nothing to fix in their eyes. They also mentioned there were no diagnostic error codes to indicate what had gone wrong. They were adamant it had nothing to do with the service and I ended up with a small labour charge which I felt a bit hard done by.

 

The big issue is that I've got 10 days left on my warranty from when I bought it in August last year and I'm driving to France in over a month and I really don't want to break down with 3 young children on board.

 

If anyone has experienced similar behaviour I'd be really interested as to what could be the issue so I can try and get it fixed!

 

Thanks

[chromedome]

On the Mk2 the Gearbox ECU wiring has been known to wear through and cause erratic gearbox behaviour. It could be that by unplugging everything the ECU has reset itself........................................but why fail in the first place?

 

It may be worth getting an independant gearbox speciaist to look at it. If they discover any problems you can then take their findings back to the dealer and claim under the warranty.

[SilverBeast]

He says it's a MK3.

 

famousfive - you will probably be better off posting in the MK3 Forum

[newgas]

I have a MK2 Auto Galaxy 1.9TDi 115 BHP, The question I have is, is there any maintenance specifically for the Auto gearbox or not, I have been told the gearbox is sealed and no maintenance required until it goes tits up.

[famousfive]

Thanks - moved to MK3

[chrispb123456]

I have a MK2 Auto Galaxy 1.9TDi 115 BHP, The question I have is, is there any maintenance specifically for the Auto gearbox or not, I have been told the gearbox is sealed and no maintenance required until it goes tits up.

The filler cap does have a seal that needs to be broken off to get the filler cap off, do a search on here, all the info you need is here, but be warned you cannot drain all the fluid only half 3.5 litres as the rest will be in the converter and valve chest, so you would need to drain and refill several times with a drive between changes to get fresh fluid around the system baring in mind fluid from dealers is about £25 a liter so would be quite expensive although was assured by transmission repairer that dexron 3 is what they use after a rebuild and is quite a bit cheaper.