Gearbox dying on me = One eventful day

I've been away in Birmingham this week, the gearbox started making a funny noise and got worse so I prayed she'd hold together long enough for us to get home again. I gritted my teeth on the way home and made it in one piece..phew!
I had planned to spend the friday night in Cardiff with my wife to go for a meal and watch Inception (Top film btw), not wanting to spoil our night I decided to risk it and drive the bus there. In the morning my plan was to swing by the Vauxhall dealer in Cardiff to pick up some parts before taking the wife shopping, unfortuantely we didn't quite make it. The gearbox finally gave way on a busy roundabout about 2 miles from Vaux. Damn!
Luckily whilst I was trying to push it off the road 2 young lads came over and gave me a push.. So a BIG thank you to those guys! Another stroke of luck was a layby on the outside of the roundabout right next to where we had stopped, so we were able to push it in there.

I rang the RAC and was expecting a 45 min wait, just 5 mins later the van pulls up! The RAC man was great, he unfolded a trailer from inside the back of van (I was amazed all that fitted in one van) hooked me up and away we went. I got him to take me 20 miles away to an old friends house who agreed to drop a new engine and box in for me. My dad picked us up from there and we went back into Cardiff to buy the spares from Vaux. I purchased a timing belt kit, water pump, oil etc, I explained to the chap behind the counter about VXZOC and that we have a 10% discount but I didn't have the membership number. No problem he said i'll give you 10%, but after chatting with him and explaining what happened to me he said "I tell you what i'll give you Trade Club" wooohoo I couldn't thank him enough.. huge savings.

Off we went again in my dad's Zaffy B. I was given a number of a vaux dismantlers about 70 miles away, I had already rang him a few days earlier and he had a Z18XE engine and box from a Veccy B that had done 69k, cheapest prices I had been quoted too. So my dad took me up there we picked up the engine and box and delivered it to my friends house. 2 and a half hours later we were done. I broke down at 8:45 and got home about 5:30 but at least everything is ready for it to be fixed.

Thanks to:

2 lads who pushed my bus
RAC man
My dad (for running me about)
My Mum (for running my wife and kids about)
My wife (for not complaining about missing her shopping trip)
The vauxhall parts man (for giving me trade prices)
Richard (The mechanic)
Ian (who recommended Richard and the dismantlers)
Dave (The dismantler)

Nice story, glad things went smooth for you on the day.

What a day you had fella!! Glad its on its way to being sorted though

Cheers guys.. although things seemed bad at first I can't complain because overall it was a lucky day.

what a busy day fella but glad you have got it all sorted now

As of last night the engine and box are out



bad news is my new clutch that was fitted approx 2 months ago was damaged when the gearbox went, so the only part that could be rescued was the slave cylinder. gutted.

some more pics,



smashed gearbox casing



old engine and box

Engine and box in, hopefully be finished tomorrow.

Looking good pal, i new they had a cat but first ive seen with a dog under the bonnet , joking apart thats why i bought mine, plenty of room in the back for the dogs and family days out.

haha yeah, it was the guy who's fitting the engine idea of a joke. He said my CAT was broken so he fitted a dog instead.

Good news peeps, The BUS is BACK!! and the engine is running sweet! Only thing I have to get used to is because the new box came out of a vectra it isn't close ratio like the standard one so it's about 1000rpm lower in every gear. Lovely and smooth though.

top job on getting it back up and running

right old nightmare you had yourself, still it's back to fight another day

did you have any problems with the cam sensor?
i put a Z18XE from an early vectra in to a 03 zaf, turned out to be a right pain lol

daddy-cool wrote:

right old nightmare you had yourself, still it's back to fight another day

did you have any problems with the cam sensor?
i put a Z18XE from an early vectra in to a 03 zaf, turned out to be a right pain lol

Nah mate I didn't have any problems but it wasn't me who fitted it, the guy who did it is well into his vauxhalls so knew exactly what he was doing. All I did was get the RAC to tow it there and I picked it up 3 days later when he finished lol.

Glad to hear it, i bet it will be nice to just drive where and whenever you want again.

pcmight wrote:

Glad to hear it, i bet it will be nice to just drive where and whenever you want again.

Yeah I hate not having a car, I get withdrawal symptoms if I can't drive.

OK guys this is the total cost which I think was a bargain.

Engine and box - £415
Parts - oil, timing belt kit, waterpump etc - £138 (vaux trade club)
Labour - £250

Total = £803

Not bad natey, cost me £598 to get my box rebuilt when it spat it out

Since the engine change she's been a bit crap on fuel consumption so today I decided to plug in the OPCOM. I made one interesting discovery, I found an option to change the gearbox geometry from close ratio to wide ratio so I changed it to wide to match the new gearbox and also reset the throttle body since that was given a good clean when it was fitted to the new engine.

I also dipped the oil today as it's been almost 2 weeks since the replacement was fitted and I was pleased to see the oil was still clean.