gearbox dying @73k

[p*ssedoffowner]

new to this forum but would appreciate any info :
my transit 51 plate 2.0 tddi 260 75hp fwd bought for 5k april 05. toddling along m77 and engine starts to chuck it, pull in, try starting again starts first time. gradually gets worse so take to garage and they wont touch. advised to go to deisel specialist, go there and he tells me that the deisel pump may need replaced £1000 plus, colour drains out of me as not had a chance to make any serious money yet. helpful guy says he can try changing the crankshaft sensor as that may help. so try that and all is fine again, or so i thought. driving along m8 halfway there same again, pull in starts again first time, another half mile same again, so eventually get to edinburgh after many stop and starts, tea-time traffic everybody must have loved me that day.
have now sussed that it dont like toddling at 60-70mph or motorways but no problems around town.
so now try just local work no problems driving around until i get a service done october everything ok then notice driveway full of oil. thinking they have not tightend the oil filter or something take back to garage and they inform me that the oil is gearbox oil. after 3 mechanics dont want to touch i get somebody to do it .now informed that the gearbox has a hole and a pile of chewed up metal inside and probably looking at a new or recon gearbox colour draining again and now right pissed. Have i bought a plug? is this problem known? Has anybody encountered this already. Surely MAJOR PARTS SHOULD LAST LONGER THAN 70K. Always wanted a transit, Now got one and scunnered with it. Backbone of britain my arse.

[rover]

I'm afraid it is a known issue with failing gearboxes on the latest model, its just unfortunate you had to get the problem.....whoever sold it was obviously informed of the situation and didnt want the expense themselves.

Your best bet?? Take it down your local auction or pay out for a new box.

The reason no-one wants to touch them is because they are such a fragile thing that a garage could put you a new box in and then two days later you might end up with a drive shaft seal leaking or similar, and you are not goint to be happy and the garage would get a bad rep for something thats not their fault....its better to say no I'm afraid, from a mechanics point of view.

[p*ssedoffowner]

cheers newbie any thoughts on the deisel pump? probably will end up selling on but not comfortable doing this to some other poor c!!!. thought i had a decent van but losing intrest as time goes. anyway its now lying with its throat cut and waiting to see the damage. i take it that ford wouldn't give a monkey's either. dont want to go near them as i dread to think what they would ask to sort

[rover]

Cant say I know where you are so hard to reccomend anyone for the pump, if you were in the Notts area I would suggest Gees Diesels, they will normall replace a pump for about 600 quid.

Before you do get a pump there are a couple of things to check...

Make sure there are no 'kinks' in any of the fuel lines.

Check that the fuel pipes are not dragging in air from any of the joints, and the sender unit on the tank is not loose, to check for air leaks spray some WD40 or similar onto the joints and watch for it dissapearing.

[FredTransit]

cheers newbie any thoughts on the deisel pump? probably will end up selling on but not comfortable doing this to some other poor c!!!. thought i had a decent van but losing intrest as time goes. anyway its now lying with its throat cut and waiting to see the damage. i take it that ford wouldn't give a monkey's either. dont want to go near them as i dread to think what they would ask to sort

if you are south, go to CJ diesel in Isleworth. They had so many customers with problems with the fly by wire pump that they developed a mechanical replacement, they told me £600 fitted.

[p*ssedoffowner]

Thanks guys for all the info, my first transit so plz excuse lack of knowledge.first-time on a forum also. glasgow based, will try to get fuel-lines ect, checked out.Hopefully can get it sorted without reaching to far into the depths of skintdom and fall in love with my tranny all over again. cheers once again. alan

[Nighthawk]

The VXT transaxle isn't a fragile unit at all, in fact it's been used in Galaxy for years and was beefed up a little for use in the Transit.

Did your gear lever feel floppy or vague selecting gears while you drove it?

I've looked at several transaxles where there is a hole in the front casing of the unit because the driver has continued to drive with a gear lever problem. The problem being a small bolt coming loose in the selector housing, if allowed to drop out the bolt will make contact with the crown wheel and get flicked through the case.




Re the cutting out

Did you look at the temp gauge at all as the engine cut out?

If the glow plug indicator lamp flashes while the concern is present, the PCM will have recorded a Diagnostic trouble code which will point the garage in the right direction. If the Crankshaft position sensor was defective the engine will not run at all.

Get the vehicle diagnosed correctly before you even begin to contemplate the idea of replacing the injection pump.

[rover]

"The VXT transaxle isn't a fragile unit at all, in fact it's been used in Galaxy for years and was beefed up a little for use in the Tran"

Only going on personal experience, I dont do gearboxes/clutches any more(getting to old to be doing it mobile), but in the first two years I had to replace four.

Rover.

[p*ssedoffowner]

when it was cutting out the glow plug indicator was flashing, passed this on to the deisel specialist, he says it had four recorded faults so could be anything and it was going to be a matter of trial and error as there is a load of sensors on this engine but would probably only be cured by a new pump. As it was ok for the next couple of months (town driving)i thought it was cured. until the next time i took it on a long journey (motorway driving). also no stickiness from gearbox or stick flopping, was still driving a couple of days ago but started to get a wee bit sticky, i thought this was probably due to the lack of oil. dont like driving a lame duck so thought i better get it seen to now and hopefully save doing any serious damage. ps after that stop/start to edinburgh i drove home after a nightshift at about 95 all the way no problems. confused? me too

[Nighthawk]

The PCM will display the trouble codes in order of importance.

Do you know what the codes were?

The engine doesn't have a lot of sensors and it's almost on heard of for some of them to fail

Crankshaft position
Cylinder head temp
Manifold absolute pressure also intake air temp
Exhaust gas recirculation valve position sensor

The fuel pump module is controled by a CAN line from the PCM so some trouble codes will be a consequence of the true fault.

E.g

The vehicle may be driving along when the CHT picks up that the engine temp is above 125degrees, from there the PCM will send a signal to the pump to reduce fuelling in order to reduce the load on the engine and try and cool the engine down. If the temp doesn't decrease to levels the engine can safely stand the PCM will then requset engine stop.

So on a diagnostic the read out could easily show 3 codes for that 1 fault

Cht out of limits.......overheated
reduced fueling
request engine stop



Still awake

[v64paul]

oh crap. they've got can as well! spent one day of an eight day course at the e.r.f. training school having that concept explained to me...

[p*ssedoffowner]

going to look now, sure one of them ended 38

[p*ssedoffowner]

na guys theres no codes on it. it jus says
"check vehicle, check codes,clear and test,no codes at time of testing. Suspect cranksensor. Supply and fit sensor. If fault occurs again vehicle will require fuel pump".
I think there was 4 codes 2 the same, so i take it thats 3 codes? think one of the others maybe ended in 14.Said codes could have been old so by changing sensor and clearing all codes i should drive until it happens again, as my work is mostly local (paint/dec) it went fine until m8 run now gearbox wants tae chuck it as well. wasn't long ago i was like the cat that got the cream in ma new (51)tranny. ahhh!!!

[Gunslinger]

i was just reading another thread here about what the newer transits will do in the event of you running low on fuel. This sounds almost similar, engine running crap, followed by it shutting down, then will start ok, maybe worth checking the fuel sender connections etc. it could have nothing to do with it, but if the ecu thinks your running out of fuel it might be making the engine behae strange, and then cut out