Is my gearbox knackerd??

[Stu Britton]

I have had my 1.8 Hlx for a year and since day 1 it has always made a bit of a whining noise which is progressive with the revs of the car . It has also always crunched into 2nd gear when it is pushed to the limits ( 5-6k Revs) is this normal?. My warranty runs out next month so any help would be much appreciated. It only has 38k on the clock if that helps.

cheers

 

[DanZ]

My 1.8 HLX whines progressivly with the revs too, i believe it's completely normal for these cars. Get a k&n, it's helped me to ignore the damn noise!

 

[David T]

The "crunching" (or grinding) into second gear is defiantly not normal. I assume that at those kinds of revs you will be changing gear rather fast and it sounds like the syncromesh is worn and will need changing. Get it down to fiat and get it fixed. I had the same fault with mine (third gear) and they fixed it under warranty.

I know a gearbox is a very complicated and delicate piece of kit but the one fitted to the bravo seams to be very weak. Is it an old one fiat pulled out of a earlier model or something? Anyone know?

 

[Tom]

I think he is trying to change a tad too fast. Worn synchro or not you can still crunch it if you are ham-fisted with the controls.