Last week whilst driving steadily along a country lane the gearbox on my Seat Leon gave up... the transmission specialist's report noted that the Cross Pin in the differential broke, which in turn smashed the crown wheel and pinion plug casing.... nice.
Complicated stuff, but the easy bit to note is that one call to the AA and three days and £1,100 later the car seems back to it's pre-broken down state.
I note that the internet is trawling with 1999-2000 VAG cars with reports of failing gearboxes; are there other people out there with newer cars suffering a similar fate? Honest John notes gearbox failures in his what-to-look-out-for section on the Leon; I'd be interested to know just how widespread this problem is.
Thanks for reading!
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Excellent reasearch by sparky93
Sadly shearing bolts & shearing cross pins for sun & planet wheels in differentials are not new with Fiat & peugeot having quite a spate of these a few years ago.
There are some that have far worst experiences with late low milage cars.Vote with your feet, thats what I did with vauxhall. My family is huge & we had many vauxhalls all in current ownership together but now none of us own vauxhalls & never will!
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This problem was widespread on VAG cars but I have not seen any recent models (newer than about 4-5 years). Seen plenty of FIAT and PSA cars with exploding gearboxes over the years.
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the VAG 1.6 gearbox between 98 and 05 is a very poor one and always a good seller for breakers. If you buy secondhand just be sure to spin it manually by hand in all gears and ensure its nice and smooth before parting with your cash.
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