Recon Gearbox Problem

[Eben]

My old 200TDi served me well for just over 800,000km.

Two years ago I rebuilt the engine for the second time. At the time I realised that it was on it's last legs and I wasn't wrong. Less than 5,000km later the new oil pump stopped working and that was the end of that. I'd already bored the engine to 40thou and decided to pull the plug on the truck.

It took me a while, but I disposed of most of the truck - deciding to keep the gearbox and transfer box to use for future projects.

Both were in need of some TLC and since I'm not a gearbox boffin, I found a company that I believed to be the best in the business and sent the gearbox and transfer box to them.

That was April 2007.

I regularly visited the company on my way to or from work between April and July 2007 and was regularly fobbed off. It took them something like a month to get around to opening the boxes. Then I was told that both boxes were in fact in very good condition and only needed new bearings and seals.

By July 2007 I still didn't have my gearbox and transfer box. Each time I went around I was told that the job card couldn't be found, or that the guy who knew what was going on was out on a test drive or any one of a dozen different stories.

I then made the move from Pretoria to the Cape, but kept pressure on these guys via email. None of my emails were replied to (I emailed them about once every ten days for six months) and my calls didn't get anywhere either.

Those of us with a legal background will probably agree that I'd behaved more than reasonably and it was time to up the temp slightly.

I eventually ambushed the workshop manager on Monday 18 February 2008 and after telling him that the matter had been ongoing for nine months, was told that as I hadn't collected the gearbox and transfer box, they'd been sent off to their "storage". Whatever that means. I was also told that if I called back later in the day, he'd have had time to locate the jobcard.

So I waited a couple of hours and called him back. Needless to say, he wasn't available. I then sat on the phone with the admin lady until such time as she saw an email from me on her screen. Amazing how one can just pop up like that, while six months of emails just disappear into the ether.

Later that day I received a faxed invoice for R22,631.28

According to the invoice they recon'd the gearbox and transfer box. Remembering what I'd been told nine months earlier about seals and bearings, I asked the admin lady to fax me a copy of the jobcard. No prizes for guessing that the jobcard was suddenly not available to be faxed.

What she did offer to fax me was a letter stating what they had done to the gearbox. Three days later I received an email with a scanned attachment stating "The transfer case and the gearbox were reconditioned. We fitted both with new parts and only used the casing".

Somebody is telling lies. Is it the workshop manager who's out to make a quick buck or is it the guy who did the work?

They've been messing me around for so long (and with the job card missing we can't even check serial numbers) that I wouldn't know whether the boxes they are offering me are even mine.

Let's say I play their little game, pay them the R22K and take the boxes around the corner to LR Centurion to have them opened up. What If we find that the gearbox output shaft is the Bearmach one that I had to fit in Zimbabwe in 2001 when it died on our way back from the eclipse? According to them that won't be the case as "it's all new parts"... Surely they can turn around and deny that it's the same gearbox that left their premises.

I'm very concerned about this whole business and would like some advice on the best way to proceed.

[HenryT]

Sounds like that approved company in Centurion recommended by LR when I had a transfer box problem. After a 10 min ride in my Defender, they quoted me +R10000. Eventually left my vehicle with a company on the West Rand who kept it for a morning and identified that the spacer between the tapered bearings was not compressed and that the bearings had failed. (LR Constantia had done a repair to it under warrantee and had botched the job). All this without removing the box from the car. In the end LR supplied the bearings and much to my disgust I had to fork out R1100 for the labour as LR had botched the job 18 months previously and was not prepared to cover the cost.

What I have learnt from experience and especially that from Land Rover Dealerships is the so called specialists recommended by the dealers are definitely not the best.

[Eben]

Sounds like the same company.

My estimate (that they would only give me after opening the box) was "around R4,000" for new bearing and seals on both boxes. At the time I thought that was quite reasonable.