A140 Gearbox problems

[Grahame]

Dear All,

Got 2001 A140 38k miles, mostly to collect kids from school, nothing heavy. Gearbox is stuck in limp home mode, been told needs new gearbox costing £4k, reconditioned is £2.5k, might be £3.5k if gearbox control unit is also required. Both options more expensive than car itself.

Have seen reconditioned & fitted gearbox advertised for £1k. This price worries me. Unsure what I will get for this.

Can anybody offer any advise? Or, is it a case of trying to claim on insurance and scrapping?

Best, Grahame

 

[Cole@MBS]

A short test first would the best advice i could give, not a lot of people understand these box,s, we have had A,classes in for a new box, Turns out to be a selector module and even a brake light switch!

Welcome to the forums

 

[Alex Crow]

have also changed a couple of selector modules. also cable adjustment between module and box can be suspect. who has diagnosed it for you grahame? this is not an easy diagnosis with DAS so your garage really needs to know their onions to be able to tell you that your box needs a mechanical overhaul. more often than not g.box limp home is triggered by an electrical fault, not mechanical. sometimes it is something seemingly completely unrelated, as has been said, eg old battery, pedal switch, coffee in the selector module etc

 

[psmart]

Are we talking about the Automatic box or the Manual? If auto, try suggestions by SAM/Alexander which arent applicable to the manual box.

I had my Manual box changed, also on an A140 (2004) at 42K. The box was making a whirring noise, had a fair bit of slack (ie. accelerator press to power to the wheels being engaged) and it got worse over time, often grating in-gear change. The box was definitely shot but had it replaced under Service Plus contract.

Regarding the re-conditioned box, this may be your best choice if you go to a reputable trader specialising in these boxes (if auto, try Martin Shawe in Barnsely). Dont trust Merc dealer mechanics, I let a set replace my box (ML270 auto) and transfer case only to find they hadnt done their job correctly, didnt remove the original fault (albeit exlicitly told) and thus the 2nd box failed.

I can list you a very long list of incompetencies with Dealership mechanics, such as installation of incorrect gearbox (RS-Turbo), 3 Engines (MG Montego Turbo), ML270 gearbox etc etc. I can also list you incompetencies with Merc trained technicians (2 attempts to repair a turbo issue, eventually got down and repaired it myself).

So to cut a long story short, if its an auto box try the above recommendations, and if not the problem, go to a reputable specialist and avoid dealerships. As an example, it cost me EUR4500 for the first box change on the ML270, then ~1800GBP on the 2nd at Martin Shawe, with guarantee. The ML270 after the first box change didnt quite feel right (failing less than 8 months later), but after the 2nd change (by Martin Shawe) the ML has been A1.

 

[jibcl500]

Dear All,

Got 2001 A140 38k miles, mostly to collect kids from school, nothing heavy. Gearbox is stuck in limp home mode, been told needs new gearbox costing £4k, reconditioned is £2.5k, might be £3.5k if gearbox control unit is also required. Both options more expensive than car itself.

Have seen reconditioned & fitted gearbox advertised for £1k. This price worries me. Unsure what I will get for this.

Can anybody offer any advise? Or, is it a case of trying to claim on insurance and scrapping?

Best, Grahame

Needs star on it, ECU and selector valves are the most common problem, ECU needs to come from Germany as its coded to the chassis, £1500 to do this work but to be honest your cars possibly not worth investing in.

jib

 

[psmart]

Just to correct, its Martin Lowe Automatic Transmission (Barnsley) Limited. Kebo57 knows of another good specialist that he used.

Specialists or self-employed mechanics are a far better choice IMO as they have more to lose and more to gain by seeing a happy customer. Their prices will be cheaper than a dealer, hence the quotes for 1000pounds would be well worth investigating iff it isnt the ECU controller or faulty switch.

Take the car to a recommended (ask on this forum) Independent near you to get an honest assessment.