What's your guess? (gearbox)
Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 8:49 pm
Posted this on RR.net then thought you guys might want to speculate wildly too.
Since I bought my P38, it's had a problem of somewhat hard shifting in the transmission. It hasn't been enough to worry me. The mechanic I first had look at the car, who knew a bit of the vehicle's history, said that he thought the gearbox was on its way out. He said he had told the previous owner the same thing when they bought it three years earlier. I didn't find it all that convincing, and either way I haven't even come close to looking at this issue in the eight months or so since I've had the car and I've mentally allowed for *maybe* having a big expense in the future. Basically it shifts kinda hard, sort of hesitating then PLONK into gear. Bearable, as I said, and very consistent - I know exactly when it is going to do a hard shift before it does it.
Anyway, the other day I was having a bad day and took a series of speed bumps a bit faster than usual. They gave the car a bit of a whack but nothing too major. I am mentioning this because it's the only thing I can think of that remotely comes close to possibly explaining what happened next. It may however be completely irrelevant.
I got home. Went out again about 15 minutes later and on start, the console told me I had a "gearbox fault". For that drive, which lasted about 15 minutes, the transmission was shifting TERRIBLY, really hard shifts. But it did get me to my destination.
I ran my errand, started the car, and drove off. No gearbox fault, and BEAUTIFUL shifting... shifting up, shifting down, pretty much as I imagine P38s were meant to shift when they were new. Since then, the beautiful shifting has continued. The bad shifting before was very predictable and consistent as I said, so I am very sure the change is not imaginary. The tranny is "fixed".
I am definitely not complaining. But I'm curious. I have some guesses of my own, but what does everyone else think? Is this some kind of last-gasp-of-the-tranny symptom, or did something electrical/hydraulic get unclogged or get a better connection somehow? Elves?
I would be really interested in anyone's wild speculation.
Since I bought my P38, it's had a problem of somewhat hard shifting in the transmission. It hasn't been enough to worry me. The mechanic I first had look at the car, who knew a bit of the vehicle's history, said that he thought the gearbox was on its way out. He said he had told the previous owner the same thing when they bought it three years earlier. I didn't find it all that convincing, and either way I haven't even come close to looking at this issue in the eight months or so since I've had the car and I've mentally allowed for *maybe* having a big expense in the future. Basically it shifts kinda hard, sort of hesitating then PLONK into gear. Bearable, as I said, and very consistent - I know exactly when it is going to do a hard shift before it does it.
Anyway, the other day I was having a bad day and took a series of speed bumps a bit faster than usual. They gave the car a bit of a whack but nothing too major. I am mentioning this because it's the only thing I can think of that remotely comes close to possibly explaining what happened next. It may however be completely irrelevant.
I got home. Went out again about 15 minutes later and on start, the console told me I had a "gearbox fault". For that drive, which lasted about 15 minutes, the transmission was shifting TERRIBLY, really hard shifts. But it did get me to my destination.
I ran my errand, started the car, and drove off. No gearbox fault, and BEAUTIFUL shifting... shifting up, shifting down, pretty much as I imagine P38s were meant to shift when they were new. Since then, the beautiful shifting has continued. The bad shifting before was very predictable and consistent as I said, so I am very sure the change is not imaginary. The tranny is "fixed".
I am definitely not complaining. But I'm curious. I have some guesses of my own, but what does everyone else think? Is this some kind of last-gasp-of-the-tranny symptom, or did something electrical/hydraulic get unclogged or get a better connection somehow? Elves?
I would be really interested in anyone's wild speculation.
