Hole in gearbox!

[kodakokun]

My Saab recently had a new clutch fitted by a garage, when the car came back there was judder, difficulty in getting into gear and then I discovered an oil leak. On taking the car back to the garage they discovered a hole in the gearbox ! The car still drives ok and no excess noise from the gearbox.

The hole is between two strengthening fins in the casting and appears to be a clean hole as if it had been drilled about 5mm diameter.

The garage said it’s possible that something broke in the gearbox and had enough force to pierce the casting. I’m surprised though, since if this had happened I would expect the gear box to be inoperable or at minimum rumbling, I would also have expected that the hole would be not so clean or even to have cracked the casting.

The guy that did the job has since been “let go”. The garage are going to take the box out, strip it down and let me know what happened. If it’s their fault they said they would fix it for free. If it’s not their fault I’ll get a big bill.

Does any one have any ideas what could have caused this, more importantly if this could be related to having the clutch fitted? – badly or otherwise !

Thanks

[kodakokun]

Thanks all for your comments.

I'm not sure if the hole is in the gearbox or bell housing but it's where all the oil drained out onto my drive from!

The good news is that garage have agreed to repair it but without accepting any liability. they will get the hole welded and they say there is no internal damage to the gearbox and the missing piece of metal is nowhere to be found !

I will try to get some digital photos of the damage. The gearbox in bits so i should be able to get a picture of the hole from both sides. I will post them on this forum.