So would you get it repaired or get recon unit or get one from a breakers, my stilo jtd (80) first gear has gone, seems a bit of a grey area hence posting in LL

There's plenty of people on ebay offering "recon" units. Getting one from a breakers may be cheaper but it's risky. The recon ones normaly come with at least 12months warranty.

When i had punto gearbox issues

I spent more money on 2nd hand breakers boxers and fitting then a little
And tbh it was always BAD LUCK

Every single box fitted which was meant to be good was a dud

Original Box in car - Blew up, the diff let go and dropped the oil everywhere
Box 1 - £50, over 100k on it - shreaded itself to pieces within 2 weeks
Box 2 - £200 from a Warrenty salvage yard, 3rd was such a bitch to enter, and the diff started to click - Returned
Box 3 - Replacement box for the 1 above, lasted me a while 5months? Was happy at first, but after a while it just got more noisey and more noisey..... till the point i said enough is enough
Box 4 - Was box no3 really but i had it reconditioned for £200 (again......) It was the best dam thing i ever did! 1year warrenty and or 10k miles which ever came first, every gear was sweet as a nut - no noises, only a super super slow leak from the gearbox pan

So my opionion - Either had a good box that suitable for repair like the above, as it was bearing failure which damaged 1 or 2 syncro's

IF i ever have to sort a gearbox out again, i'll say hands down - recon all the way
Sure it costs more to start with, but your protect with a warrenty AND it will cost less in the long run
Must have spent over £600 on gearbox fitting..... to the point now i do my own!

ziggy

Cheers chris ill look at e bay later. Ziggy your tale of woe says it all,I got stilo cheap cos it needed g/box putting back in, but 2 weeks after had it out again for main shaft seal.I'm thinking about recon now thanks chaps

Dont get me wrong - sometimes you can get a 2nd hand box that is perfectly fine

But Scrap yard just drive it up and down the yard a few times
Not allowing things to get hot etc etc

only get 2nd hand if its off a well known friend/family who you can trust

Otherwise Recon all the way
plus if anything does go wrong - it's the recon's places problem not yours so to speak

Ziggy

Ta ziggy seeing as I'm luck exempt ill go recon route