Hi,

I'm in the middle of a dispute with a garage that undertook work to my gearbox last October, as part of an extended warranty scheme. The work done was an overhaul of the box, as the 2nd and 6th gear teeth had broken and caused debris in the box.

In September, I noticed a 'rattling' or juddering from the gearbox when it was in 6th (similar to the problem from the previous year). I don't know much about mechanics at all, but it sounded as if teeth were clicking against something whilst in rotation.

Anyway, I contacted the garage to explain the fault, given that I didn't think that a problem with 6th gear should recur so soon. Long story short, they aren't interested, so I contacted Trading Standards who told me to write a formal letter to the garage asking for what they're prepared to do. As I didn't get a response, as part of progressing the issue, Trading Standards have asked me to get an informal second opinion from an expert stating that, in their opinion, the problem is with the gearbox and that it shouldn't be expected to break down in the time since it was repaired.

Unfortunately, none of the gearbox specialists or mechanics I've approached so far are willing to do something like this - they either want to do a full, formal inspection (at a cost of a couple of hundred quid) or won't touch it because they deal with the garage (it does breakdown recovery) and don't want it to affect any future dealings with them.

So I'm just wondering if there are any suggestions for how I might be able to get this informal opinion that Trading Standards require? It seems like a lot of effort for something so (apparently) trivial!