If you are unfortunate enough to have a gearbox fault you will probably be wondering what are your options. As they are a not a common issue in most cases, you may not even realise that there are different options. So what to pick? New, recon, repair or used?In this article we are mainly going to cover the positives and negatives between recon’s, repairs and used gearboxes as these are the most common options and briefly share our experiences with these.
New Gearbox
This option is pretty self explanatory and many people do not realise there are other options out there. This is understandable as when you think about most general repairs on vehicles; brakes, servicing, tyres, they all involve new parts to complete the job.
Positives
The pro’s of a new unit are of course that it is brand new and should have a long service life. These units will often only come from main dealer so will also have a certain warranty period for peace of mind, usually 12 months.
Negatives
- These units are normally, hugely expensive and sometimes exceed the value of the vehicle itself.
- Long lead times can also cause issues with units not being in stock and having to be ordered from a central warehouse overseas.
Recon Gearbox
Full reconditioning a gearbox involves the strip down and replacement of require parts on a unit that has either sustained damage or wear and tear. These units still contain used parts but however they should long outlive the service life of the vehicle.
- It is almost the same as having a new gearbox but without the high price tag.
- Bearings and seals are changed as standard on recon units and will often have other components changed to fall inline with recon standard criteria.
Positives
- Very good reliability without the price tag of a new unit.
- We can normally offer a longer warranty period than you would get with a new unit!
- All parts covered under warranty.
Negatives
- Can still be expensive depending on model and availability.
- Availability can be limited on certain vehicles, so customers unit has to be reconditioned.
Gearbox Repairs
A lot of the work we do involves repairing specific problems within a gearbox. If you have an issue selecting a specific gear then we can replace the components that make up that part of the gearbox without having to replace the whole unit. This obviously save a huge amount of money as you are only repairing the direct issue rather than replacing everything. Our most common repair would be bearing replacement followed by gear repairs due to crunching or failure.
Positives
- Cost effective in most cases and can save the customer substantial amounts of money.
- Directly identifies and fixes the issues with the gearbox.
- Good warranty periods for peace of mind.
Negatives
- Repairing gearboxes is very time consuming and the invetigation time can take a while.
- Expect the vehicle to be out of action for a few days.
- Some parts have long lead times and can cause delays.
Used Gearboxes
This option is the second least common in our line of work and this is down to one reason, reliability. We do offer outsourced used gearboxes to our customers. This is because there are scenarios were repairing or reconditioning your gearbox is just not cost effecient. This could be down to the age of the vehicle or it’s condition. The other reason is that parts are not always available to repair your unit. This is the case with alot of BMW models were parts will have to be custom made for your gearbox.
Positives
- Low cost and normally the cheapest option to repair the vehicle.
Negatives
- Very unreliable. Sometimes with only one months warranty.
- Very prone to failure again in certain models.
