Help! Back in Oct16 while on holiday, both my wife and I noticed that the gearbox in our Doblo was whining a little when cold, so when it went in for a service in early Mar17, Iasked the (independent) garage I have been using for the last 4 years to investigate.

They told me that it was low on gearbox oil as I had a small leak, and that they had topped it up. Apart from keeping an eye on it, they further advised that within acouple of years, I might want to consider a new clutch, at which point the leak could be rectified. As we plan to keepthis car, I decided I would go ahead with the work there and then, to avoid potential damage to the gearbox.When they took the gearbox off, that they also found excess play in the dual mass flywheel, which was also replaced.

As gutting as this all was, I could rationalise it all when research on the internet confirmed that such wear was not uncommon on a modern diesel.

Unfortunately, last Saturday, after a longish run, the gearshift suddenly and quite markedly stiffened up. I got the car home and did not drive it after that, until I dropped it off first thing after the bank holiday Monday.

• They changed the oil in the box with no appreciable improvement.
• So they had another look at the linkages andthey say everything is as it should be.
• They now tell me that they think there is something wrong inside and advise having the gearbox rebuilt at a cost of£1000-£1400.

I drove the car home last night and this morning, and it is shifting more easily (but not as well as before), which makes me wonder how, given that all they have done is change the oil.

Whilst I have no reason to doubt them, I can’t quite bring myself to tell them to go ahead on what is basically a hunch.

Does anyone know a good gearbox diagnostics garage in theBishop’s Stortford area?

Think if you don't say which engine you have no replies will be forth coming.

Thank you: I have the 2.0 Diesel MultiJet

Disappointingly, you are the only person that even attempted to give some advice.


I finally got to the bottom of the issue. The garage that changed the clutch and flywheel on my Doblo replaced the mounting bolt for the gearbox in the wrong order, one of which damaged the gearbox casing, pushing the broken section through and jamming the selector.


Moreover, despite the car having supposedly been serviced and MOT'ed in Mar, they discovered:


Broken NSF Spring
Both bottom ball joints needed replacing
NSF driveshaft gaiter ripped


All in all, £3k to get the car sorted.

Thank you for sharing your experience.

I recently bought a 2014 year Doblo Cargo Maxi 2.0 Multijet with 6 speed gearbox. Mileage 70 000 km (about 43 500 miles)

The pre owner had a small leakge on gearbox too. He had a garage to take the gearbox of and sealed the leak.

I have read that it is not uncommon with transmission issues on Fiat.
When it is cold outside on the morning, the first and second gear is very hard to shift. When the powertrain is warmed up it is no problem to shift.

Does anyone know what this problem can be caused by?

This really puts me off getting a newer van whilst my £1,200 2004 Doblo is still chugging along perfectly. Two years and no discernable repair costs at all.

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Even if I had to change the tranny within 150000 km, I'm extremly satisfied with my new Doblo.

Seems like Castrol Syntrans 75w90 solved the problem in this thread.
https://www.fiatforum.com/bravo/264939-my-knob-goes-stiff-when-its-cold.html?264939=#post2715652

Anyway, I think I have to check the linkage first of all.

Yes! Syntrans Multivehicle 75W-90 almost solved the problem. What a difference!

6-speed gearbox name is C635.
I found the oil through Castrol Oil selector on Vauxhall Combo D wich also has the 263A1000 engine and C635 transmission.

https://applications.castrol.com/oi...(2011-)&modelType=combo-d-2-0-cdti-(2011-2016)


Autolosso about the C635:
http://www.autolusso.co.uk/gearbox-C635.html

Autolosso rebuild site:
"C635 GEARBOX
This is the latest generation of Alfa gearboxes and they suffer very much like the M32 gearbox from bearing failure. We are currently working on a fix for this. News to follow."

http://www.autolusso.co.uk/gearbox-rebuilds.html