Technical Sudden gearbox death

[CDK]

Friends from Holland were here with a Ducato 244 based camper they have owned for nearly 6 months. Very satisfied, nothing broke down of fell off during their journey across the Alps. They even climbed some very steep local hills here without a glitch.

Then they returned home but didn't quite reach the Italian border. In the middle of a level road the vehicle lost all traction. They were towed to an Italian Fiat dealer who diagnosed the automatic gearbox as total loss, estimated repair costs over EUR 6000, no further explanation..
Any ideas about what could have happened?

 

[corcai]

Friends from Holland were here with a Ducato 244 based camper they have owned for nearly 6 months. Very satisfied, nothing broke down of fell off during their journey across the Alps. They even climbed some very steep local hills here without a glitch.

Then they returned home but didn't quite reach the Italian border. In the middle of a level road the vehicle lost all traction. They were towed to an Italian Fiat dealer who diagnosed the automatic gearbox as total loss, estimated repair costs over EUR 6000, no further explanation..
Any ideas about what could have happened?

Could be anything, low oil level can lead to overheating, stripped gears, blocked oil cooler, blocked filter, it only takes a tiny bit of swarf to block a valve chest. Iwould convert it to manual with parts from a donor van if it was mine.

 

[Thefox]

Faults like this can happen, sometimes difficult to detect a fault if you don't know what to look/listen for.
Prices in Europe are usually more and you might struggle to find a specialist that will remove the box as wells repair it.
The price you've been quoted for will be a new or remanufactured box, the main dealer might not have a technician trained on repairing an auto box. It may cost more to fix than replace due to high labour rate.

 

[CDK]

After 22 years I am familiar with every stretch of road on this island. It surely wasn't clever to climb extremely steep hills in summer with a heavy camper but these guys thought they were invincible. There are no signs on local (dirt) roads but some are well over 20%; the only vehicles you see there are four wheel drives and pickup trucks.

What surprised me though was the Ducato coping with it and finally giving up on a level road.