When you do something really dangerous and stupid !

When you do something really dangerous and stupid !

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Nigel Worc's

Original Poster:

8,121 posts

187 months

Saturday 25th October 2014
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Hello chaps, just thought I'd share this with you, I got away with it, but with hindsight I was such a stupid !

I've just had a new (2nd hand) engine fitted to my van, all the trimmings, new cambelt, tensioner, waterpump, complete clutch etc.

On Tuesday I noticed a very quite "rumble" on overrun, noisy thrust bearing perhaps I thought, noise went when the clutch was depressed etc.

I popped back to my garage that did the work, a mechanic came out with me, he did eventually hear the noise, it didn't do it all the time, you know the sort of thing ?

Doesn't sound too serious he said, but arrange for us to have the van in and check it out, ok says me, and I arrange it for Friday, as I've a job to do in Flint on Wednesday, and Louth on Thursday.

I drive to Flint and the noise is getting more noticeable, by the time I get home it sounds very very bad.

I decided to put off the job to Louth and take the van back to the garage on Thursday.

I only got about a hundred yards down the road and the gearbox seized, completely, locked the front wheels, I was very fortunate the car behind didn't hit me.

The scary bit here is I'd driven the van, at motorway speeds on motorways, from Flint to Worcester, there would have been bits of the van, me, and others I guess, spread all over the motorway if that had locked there.

Even the RAC patrolman said FFS you have full cover, please use it !

I just thought I'd share this, as from very intermittent quiet rumble to full seizure was much quicker than I'd thought possible, I was aware it wasn't well on the trip back, but had thought the worst that would happen would be loss of drive, and was prepared for that.

e39darren

181 posts

140 months

Saturday 25th October 2014
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Sounds like whoever fitted the engine forgot to put the gearbox oil back in

Nigel Worc's

Original Poster:

8,121 posts

187 months

Saturday 25th October 2014
quotequote all
e39darren said:
Sounds like whoever fitted the engine forgot to put the gearbox oil back in
Although that is possible, and I'll never know, I do a lot of miles and had done over 2000 miles in a fortnight, catching up with work from where the van had been off the road for ten days whilst the engine was sourced and fitted.

I'm not sure it would've lasted that long.

PositronicRay

26,958 posts

182 months

Saturday 25th October 2014
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I had a tick tick tick on acceleration out of roundabouts. I had a half hearted look for it but couldn't find anything wrong. Went on holiday to France and it started to make a noise/vibrate @ 80ish pulling up hills.

Decided to nurse it till we got home, 1600 miles later the front flex disc failed (connects gearbox to propshaft) about 2hrs from Calais on the autoroute.

lesson learnt.

Barkychoc

7,848 posts

203 months

Saturday 25th October 2014
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My son's avensis gearbox went from a little bearing noise to complete failure in about 2000 miles. Fortunately it didn't seize. I now know what a bag of spanners sounds like though. So much damage in the gearbox with bits of hardened steel circulating the gearbox man said it wasn't worth wasting labour opening it up. 2nd hand gearbox, new bearings and it's back on the road

littleredrooster

5,523 posts

195 months

Saturday 25th October 2014
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I've had wheel bearings rumble gently for thousands of miles before I've replaced them.

Except one, which went from gentle rumble to total collapse in a week - probably 200 miles.

otolith

55,899 posts

203 months

Saturday 25th October 2014
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I had a rumbling wheel bearing fixed in anticipation of a trip from Wiltshire to Glasgow. Would probably have been ok but didn't want to risk it. On the way home, it seized at 70mph just past Lockerbie, the garage had fked up fitting it. Took over 12 hours of AA trucks and hanging around motorway services to get home.

RobinBanks

17,540 posts

178 months

Saturday 25th October 2014
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You haven't had much luck with that van!

TooMany2cvs

29,008 posts

125 months

Saturday 25th October 2014
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e39darren said:
Sounds like whoever fitted the engine forgot to put the gearbox oil back in
Or whoever put it all back together DID put oil back in the 'box, but didn't replace the driveshaft seals or didn't make sure they'd seated properly, so the box emptied itself.

But you'd have seen oil drips and quite probably a good coating up the back of the van.

Nigel Worc's

Original Poster:

8,121 posts

187 months

Saturday 25th October 2014
quotequote all
RobinBanks said:
You haven't had much luck with that van!
No I haven't, sad really, I did a lot of research before buying a 2nd hand van, all the usual keep away from French ones etc etc.

Just the luck of the draw I guess, I always found BMW 5 series cars to be absolutely top notch, but I know plenty of people that haven't.

At least I can stop annoying the Rover fans now, as this Caddy even exceeds the reliability record of my Rover 75.

What I have learnt is to keep away from diesel engines in the future at all cost .

iva cosworth

44,044 posts

162 months

Saturday 25th October 2014
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You shouldn't beat yourself up over this.

No one would have predicted this would happen.

RWA441

703 posts

223 months

Saturday 25th October 2014
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The main thing is you didn't get stuck in Flint! biggrin

Nigel Worc's

Original Poster:

8,121 posts

187 months

Saturday 25th October 2014
quotequote all
iva cosworth said:
You shouldn't beat yourself up over this.

No one would have predicted this would happen.
I'm not "beating" myself up as such, just pointing out how close I came to possibly causing a motorway pile up.

I've personally never experienced a complete lock up like that before, and I've been driving a long time.

I imagine it would have been a rare occurrence for the Police investigators too, a genuine mechanical failure, although one I'm personally unlikely to let happen again.

You often see them write on here how unusual it is.

solo2

858 posts

146 months

Wednesday 12th November 2014
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I had similar on my gearbox locking my rear wheels when it imploded. From the very first slight rumble to total failure was circa 50 miles of gentle driving but increasing unhappiness from the car.

I was already heading home as I knew something was very amiss but wasn't sure just what despite also consulting a technician about it. I too was shocked at how the car suddenly stopped and also in my case as well I was lucky to be driving down a residential road at the time, although the residents whose house my car blocked wasn't quite so happy about it when they couldn't park on their own drive hehe