Addison Lee Ulysse - Gearbox Probs- £££

Hi All,

IF YOU HAVE AN ADDISON LEE AUTO READ ALL OF THIS

Well this is my first post (sorry its a bit long) - Found the site just AFTER I bought the dreaded black Addison Lee Ulysse (if I'd found the site before I'd bought the damn car I wouldn't have touched it with a bargepole - Ho Humm)

Anyway so other owners can brace themselves and to possibly offer a tip here's the story.

Bought the car 31/10/06 74137miles, paid £6000

500 miles later the safety lock on the gear shift packs in - manage a bodge to get around and complain to Fleet Sales - They give me a free 6 month warrranty to get it fixed - Fine by me. - The warranty is with Warranty Direct (more about this later )

Anyway just before Xmas the Missus mentions "the car came up with a warning today" " Oh?" I says "Yes - Gearbox fault" she says - well having read the site I was dreading this.

On and off we experience jerky shifting from cold and then the box 'clunks' and appears to stick in a gear (2nd or 3rd by the feel of things)

Off we tootle to Rockingham Motors who do the examiner check - YEP Gearbox Fault - P0730 - Incorrect Transmission Ratio (Slip) Intermittent, They recommend going to another garage as not under Fiat Warranty and because they would have sent the car to them anyway. The garage is Midland Automatic Transmissions in Kettering (who have been excellent so far)

True to form gearbox plays up - we authorise the strip down to determine cause of failure, confident that Warranty Direct would cover this. Get a phone call from them saying the gearbox is basically rubber-ducked - Brake bands worn, valve block failed , brake pin worn etc. Bottom line new gearbox req'd

OK are you sitting down...

Transmission £999.00
Torque Converter £225.00
Fitting Charge £395.00
Reprogram controller £60.00
Initial Diagnosis test £65.00
Environmental disposal £3.75
All +VAT

TOTAL (inc vat) £2048.32

Now the fun bit - Warranty Direct (if you have a Warranty Direct policy note this carefully)are saying they won't cover it as it is wear and tear on gearbox and the policy has a clause excluding wear and tear from any claims in the first 90 days. We were at 53 days

So if you have an Addison Lee taxi or a diesel auto start saving some pennies.

If you have a Dealer Direct Warranty - WATCH YOUR DATES.

Midland Autos said they have seen this box fail regulary at 25000 miles, Equally they say that the new box they are going to install in mine has a lot of modifications and they would expect 75,000 miles from it.

I'm rueing the day I got rid of my old Merc E200 for this damn car

Good luck all ex AL owners

Taq

It's a petrol isn't it?
Should burn well!

If they have seen these boxes fail regulary its not fair to blame Addison Lee is it?

I don't think he is blaming Addison Lee, but pointing out that it is likely to happen to cars from Addison Lee as they pretty much all seem to have had a problem (it's been in magazines), due to the type of driving they have done and also the mileage they have done as taxi's.

Or a ulysee diesel.

No not blaming Addison Lee.

Just a warning to anyone with an Auto Diesel Ulysse/C8/807 as sooner or later they will be on the receiving end of a bill of this magnitude.

This gearbox the AL4 is a common old thing used in may motors. Its use in our big MPV's would appear to be right at the limit of its specifications - and in the case of the Addison Lee cars due to the type of driving it has been subjected to they are showing their weakness.

Bottom line in my case - my car is now going to have cost me £8000 for a 74000mile Dynamic with electric doors - not a great deal......IMHO

My old merc E200 with 179,000 miles I drove for at least 100,000 miles and it broke down ONCE - it needed a new alternator at about 120,000 - that's it - still on original catalyst (had to replace the rear exhaust box sometime around the 110000 mile mark) and to think I gave it away for £500 to make space for the Ulyssee

We have an '05' Ulysse of similar background, with 32k miles on it currently. The autobox was replaced with a new unit under warranty last July by Fiat. It eas replaced at less than 29k miles.