I have an 03 UK 3.3 auto Grand Voyager on about 105k miles. Always been looked after, full service history, and so far about 8 years of fairly trouble free motoring.... until now!

A few days ago, driving the car, stopped at a junction and when putting it back into drive, the car wouldn't move. Lever went into drive ok and dash displayed D and no warning lights, so revved it a bit (2500rpm) and it jolted into gear and off I went with no other issues. Started from cold yesterday and had the same issue, but in reverse this time. No movement, revved to about 2500rpm and car jolted off, then into drive and the same thing happened. Could also hear a cruching/grinding from the front end. Put car back on the drive and left it.

Got a friend round with his meter to test for errors, got in the car to get off the drive and put it on the level, it pulled away fine. Took for a drive, 2 miles, no issues, also no engine or gearbox errors stationary or driving! Checked the fluid, at correct level, still a nice pink and didn't smell burnt.

Missus got in it this morning and from cold, same issue! Parked up on the road and left it for the day. I checked it this evening and its still playing up. Into drive ok, but doesn't go anywhere unless I rev it or take it in and out of gear a few times. When it goes, there is still a grinding/crunching sound from the from but it will drive a bit and change gear (didnt want to go more than a few yards). Put it in reverse, no movement, rev and it jolts off.

Dont want to get the gearbox changed yet if there are places I can look first? Diff, torque converter, solenoid. Should I drop the sump to see if there are any nasties in there? Or could it be something not gearbox related?

 

Do a quick check on any electrical connection to box. Sounds a bit like corroded connection.

 

I know you said the fluid looked OK, but change it and the filter before doing anything else.

The characteristics of the fluid does degrade over time and while most gearbox's these days are claimed to have "lifetime fluid", if you look at the small print they consider lifetime to be 60-80K miles.

Regards
Richard

 

Yes indeed, ATF fluid should be changed after 60,000mile if synthetic, 30.000mile if mineral. All assuming normal driving. If there's a lot of hill climbing, trailer/caravan towing, halve those distances. The killer for ATF fluid is temperature -- if it's above 100*C most of the time, it will have a shorter life. Hence the value of separate ATF coolers, esp. the ones with a fan.
Likely your old fluid will smell burnt. If it does, it needed changing anyway.

Leedsman.

 

Took the box sump off and found a load of metal bits, so definitely the gearbox failing.

Cant decide whether to hunt for a gearbox on ebay or not bother because of the age of the car, dont really want it to go though, got quite attached to it!

 

Bugger

big chips of metal or small filings/dust?

If it's just filings then go for a fluid and filter change and see if you can coax a bit more life out of it. Otherwise go for one from a breakers as a rebuilt box wont make financial sense

Regards
Richard

 

Only filings so just starting to die. Might be worth the fluid/filter change but have seen a box for £300 from a voyager of the same age with 30k less miles so tempted to go for that.

Still in a dilemma whether its going to be economically viable as steering pump is screaming so could do with a bit of attention, needs back part of exhaust very soon, break pipes are pretty corroded, big cooling pipe on bottom right of engine needs changing and the usual... rear wiper motor and passenger window motor. Other than that, its ok :-)

Then there's the MOT in a few months. Mostly small jobs but all together, quite pricey.

 

do a fluid change and then put it though a pre-mot check and see what it would have failed on. That will get you an idea of the costs of keeping it on the road for another year.

If it looks like it's going to be too expensive to repair then if you have the time and room then break the car yourself and sell the parts on eBay, you'll get far more than selling it as spares or repair of weighing it in.

Regards
Richard

 

@yesfan, if you do decide to break it and it has side steps, I'll make you a good offer for them. But before you make a decision, just this week I had the auto box filter changed and new oil on my 2007 2.8 with 73,000 miles. My local garage charged £132.00. It's transformed the car, it's got so much more get-up-and-go.
Filter... £45.90
Oil...... £24.48
Labour £40.00
VAT... £22.08

 

As too brake pipes, emery rust off and cover in grease, thicker grease the better.