I have an Elnagh motorhome on a Fiat Ducato chassis with a 1.9turbo diesel and a 5 speed manual gearbox registered in 2000 (W reg).
In May 2008 I had problems with the gearbox in that the synchro stopped working on 2nd and 3rd gears. I had to have it completely rebuilt with all new gears, shafts and bearings - a new gearbox with the exception of the casing. The problem was that water got into the gearbox via the breather. The company that rebuilt it are gearbox specialists and have had numerous cases of this. They also fitted a Fiat mod to the gearbox breather and I also redirected the windscreen drain away from the top of the gearbox.
Three weeks ago I had the same problem again but only with second gear. Although out of warranty the gearbox company, out of goodwill, agreed to fix the problem if I paid to have the gearbox removed, which I did.
I have now got it back and despite there being no water in the gearbox oil the same problem occurred. Apparantly, It is caused by the coating on the synchro hub coming off. Most gear synchos use steel with a bronze hub but Fiat in their wisdom use steel and steel with a coating of some unknown material which doesn't last. My van in the two years had only done 5900 miles - not very good advertising for Fiat!
Has anyone else had the same problem and does anyone have any advise to avoid this happening in say another 6000 miles. That is apart from the obvious - get rid of it. 90% of motorhomes are now on a Fiat Ducato chassis. Does anyone know if the problem has been designed out of later models?

The water ingress is more evident on the 1.9TD and 2.0 JTD, this being down to their not being much in the way of water dripping down from the scuttle onto the gearbox.

On my 2.8JTD, the syncromesh started to go on 4th gear at just over 100k,with 5th and 3rd starting to go at around 150K.

The 2.8JTD has a lot more in the way of covers and bits in the way to reduce that water ingress. It still can happen though.


Has this anomaly been designed out of new versions? I can't answer that.

On a personal note, our next van will be another Ducato, as IMHO, few vans can offer us the practicality, performance and (in our case up to 100k miles), low cost running and ownership.

Thanks for your response. I solved the problem of the water by diverting the windscreen drain away from the gearbox. The latest problem has nothing to do with water as there was no water in the oil. It has just worn the coating (which I think is some sort of Teflon) off the gear hub in just 6000 miles! A very poor design!!!