KHALED25 said:

All this time I thought we were safe from the gearbox failures LOL. What do you think I should do to keep it from failing?

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FWIW I'd try to find out the average mileage covered until failure and strip and renew any worn bearings etc at about 2/3 - 3/4 of this mileage or asap if I detected any unusual noise. But , that's easy for me to say because I do all my own work.
Alternatively, find a good recommended ( by someone you trust) independent garage or gearbox specialist and seek their advice.
It seems crazy to wait, especially if an unusual noise is audible, until a bearing fails and possibly destroys the gearbox internals and then criticize the manufacturer and lament over the cost of having to source a new or S/hand gearbox. If it was an engine noise, you wouldn't wait until it blew up, would you? particularly if you knew of a weak component inside.
And NO, I wouldn't just sell the car when the noise started, to an unsuspecting private buyer, I'd either fix the problem or make them aware of the upcoming repair and adjust the price accordingly.

Al

Most Easterly Pandas said:

Personally, I'd either get rid or get a good warranty which will cover it.

Unfortunately I got rid of the car with the issue.

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F123C said:

FWIW I'd try to find out the average mileage covered until failure and strip and renew any worn bearings etc at about 2/3 - 3/4 of this mileage or asap if I detected any unusual noise. But , that's easy for me to say because I do all my own work.
Alternatively, find a good recommended ( by someone you trust) independent garage or gearbox specialist and seek their advice.
It seems crazy to wait, especially if an unusual noise is audible, until a bearing fails and possibly destroys the gearbox internals and then criticize the manufacturer and lament over the cost of having to source a new or S/hand gearbox. If it was an engine noise, you wouldn't wait until it blew up, would you? particularly if you knew of a weak component inside.
And NO, I wouldn't just sell the car when the noise started, to an unsuspecting private buyer, I'd either fix the problem or make them aware of the upcoming repair and adjust the price accordingly.

Al

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Sorry to KHALED25, I was thinking of the above first quote when I replied to your question re- how to prevent gearbox failure.

I'm a firm believer in changing gearbox oil, with 1st change at say 5,000 km and then every say 40,000 km or more frequently if you wish, it's cheap insurance and can't do any harm but may do much good. The first change gets rid of all the little bits of metal worn off the gears etc. the subsequent changes ensures that the lubricant qualities haven't diminished. You could extend change intervals if you use a fully synthetic gear oil (IDK if there is one suitable for your gearbox).

I wonder how often the gearbox oil was changed on the M32 gearboxes which failed.........

Also when rebuilding a gearbox, sometimes a bearing supplier can suggest a 'stronger' bearing to replace one which is known to fail.

Al.

Most Easterly Pandas said:

Unfortunatly choice of main dealer is limited when you've a dead car, you can't just take it from one to the other.

It went into a very highly regarded and reputable specialist before hand, but they held their hands up and said they were not 100% sure on the issue and although were happy taking the gearbox out and investigating further they said it could be a costly way about doing things. I appreciated their honesty, and they didn't charge me. I've used them for general service before the even have since.

You'll be lucky to find any independent specialist who's 100% happy and confident on working with a Fiat Selespeed system. And unfortunately main dealers seem to be no better, despite being the experts and having all the correct kit (supposidly)

They mis-diagnosed the slave cylinder (internal, so charged £700 for replacement slave and clutch with labour) then when the same fault was present they decided to check the externally mounted master, and this was £713 for the part. Total bill was £1400 (although I got away with £1300 as I had a voucher from something else). If they'd diagnosed the issue properly in the first place it'd have been £713 plus 2 hours labour.

They returned the car with bits left unassembled, were not apologetic and ever since when the car felt like it it wouldn't go into reverse - this issue they refused to acknowledge existed, despite getting it on video, and it only started since they'd had their hands on it. A full write up is in the pipeline, but there is a lot to put to paper, and get accurate so they can be shown for the monkeys they are without being accused of slander

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You sound quite exasperated, having done all the right things and been apparently badly let down by the main dealer, my commiserations.
The only thought I have, and I'm not familiar with your model of gearbox, is on the standard manual gearbox there's a template (special tool) to be used for setting the gearchange cables otherwise presumably gears won't be selected properly, but IDK if cables are used on your model ?

Al.

F123C said:

but IDK if cables are used on your model ?

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Being a dualogic it was fully automatic and done with actuators etc

Good point about gearbox oil and I believe a lot of the vaux guys use special oil - I really should change mine.

Next time your pads need changed, try a set of ebb greenstuff - the bite from cold is great and keeps getting better. My standard discs looked on their way out so changed them for ebb turbo groove at same time. Partly cosmetic, but having experienced brake fade on other cars with standard brakes, didn't really want to again. I've had this set up on 3 'performance' cars now and never let me down

Most Easterly Pandas said:

I know, I unfortunately fell victim while always thinking the same and that it wasn't the M32 gearbox. Personally, I'd either get rid or get a good warranty which will cover it. Mine happened at 94k miles, higher mileage than those in the manual gearbox front where issues normally happen at lower mileage, but that was 94k none abused standard miles without any remaps etc.

Unfortunately I got rid of the car with the issue. After £1300 for a clutch master cylinder issue last summer I'd fallen out of love with is and it was the straw which broke the camels back. Not acceptable on a <6 year old car imo and the main dealer experience last year was appalling also

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Well 94k miles is way more than I intend to keep the car TBH. I probably won't even keep it past 94k km for that matter. This has nothing to do with the bravo, its just that in my country the cars are badly abused from the intense heat and never ending traffic so we people tend to avoid crossing the 100k km mark. Back to the topic, there's no option of an extended warranty here and I'm already out of warranty. But getting rid is out of question currently since the car has only done 50k km in 4 years, and I've always tried to keep her in the best condition. Not to mention the fact that I see no other car that attracts me as much as the bravo did.

F123C said:

FWIW I'd try to find out the average mileage covered until failure and strip and renew any worn bearings etc at about 2/3 - 3/4 of this mileage or asap if I detected any unusual noise. But , that's easy for me to say because I do all my own work.
Alternatively, find a good recommended ( by someone you trust) independent garage or gearbox specialist and seek their advice.
It seems crazy to wait, especially if an unusual noise is audible, until a bearing fails and possibly destroys the gearbox internals and then criticize the manufacturer and lament over the cost of having to source a new or S/hand gearbox. If it was an engine noise, you wouldn't wait until it blew up, would you? particularly if you knew of a weak component inside.
And NO, I wouldn't just sell the car when the noise started, to an unsuspecting private buyer, I'd either fix the problem or make them aware of the upcoming repair and adjust the price accordingly.

Al

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Unfortunately there's very few people around the bravo forum with a dualogic, and there's only a handful of threads discussing the dualogic so I can't really collect any useful data. As far as I know the 6-speed dualogic is also different from the 5-speed used in the punto as well. Fortunately there isn't any noise coming from the gearbox (yet). Since the bravo isn't the most common car here (or anywhere around the world tbh ), there's no one to go to but the official dealership if something comes up.

Fortunately, the official dealership here uses a much shorter service interval (every 10k km). Moreover, they change most components (oils, filters, belts) much more frequently. For example, they changed the selespeed oil the past two services as far as I can remember (40k and 50k km). That may cost more, but better safe than sorry IMO.

Oh and I agree with you about not selling something faulty without making it clear to the buyer. Fortunately, we traditionally do checkups only at the official dealership (which again is pretty much your only destination with FIAT) before buying a used car, so they already have a record of any past issue with the car as well as its service history, etc.