Too co-incidental...me thinks !!! Grub screw issue

[Greg B]

Hi Guys,

I'm new to the forum...and so glad i came across it, as it's full of great tips and tricks...

I have a problem and hope i can get some advice and clarity regarding this...my cluth fork popped on my Defender tdi, and so had it replaced, along with a new release bearing. The plates and clutch itself seemed in good order still.

I collected the truck from the machanic and the clutch felt great and gear changes were smooth.....however as the days passed (4 to be precise), it became more difficult to shift into 5th...the following day, pulling away from a stop light i had nothing...i couldn't select nada...

It went back to the mechanic...problem was the grub screw holding the selector in place had "almost fallen out" according to the mechanic.

He wants to bill me again for dropping the box....

My questions

1) what could have caused the grub screw to come loose?...it's my understanding that these are set in with locktite, and most times when trying to remove them it is really really difficult.

2) should the mechanic not have inspected parts that are removed and checked before re-fitting ?

3) should i be billed again.

Your advice and experience would be greatly appreciated, as i'll be querying this with him tomorrow..

Many thanks

Greg

[CwazyWabbit]

Sounds like bad luck to me, you wouldn't be going inside the box to do a clutch arm replacement.

[dave88sw]

You don't have to drop the box to do the grub screw up...

Just take the transmission tunnel out, about 10 screws and then you can take the top off the box, i reckon about an hours labour, no parts needed except a selector housing gasket.

[Big.Mike]

Hi Greg,

Welcome to the forum. it doesn't say on your profile where you are.

There are plenty of land rover specialists, perhaps we could point you in the direction of someone?

cheers,

mike

[Greg B]

thanks for the replies..Yeah probably bad luck....non the less they charged me a packet...says it took 4 hours...??!!!

Mike..I'm from East London, South Africa. Still have to complete my LR 4X4 profile

Well it's holidays soon and I plan to give my truck some TLC.

[Rangy35]

Yup bad luck, the mechanic could not have caused that when changing the clutch parts, the 4 hours labour was maybe a bit stiff......don't get me wrong here but the labour for the second repair could have matched your attitude when you went back.

Almost forgot......welcome to the madhouse.

[Adam001]

30min job, you just got screwed over!

Just keep it in mind and don't use the same garage again.

[muddy]

I'm not trying to advocate someone getting screwed over but no way s it a 30 minuite job.

By the Tim e. You have the vehicle on the ramp and the interior stripped out that's easily half an hour depending on interior trim, last time I did this you can't get the top of the gearbox up high enough to clear as it fouls on the seat box without first lowering the gearbox, that's getting on for 30 mins itself.

I don't know the ins and outs of your issue but I do know that I work in an agricultural main dealer for my sins and four hours really isn't a lot of time when you have to diagnose the problem, get to the problem, get the bits to fix the problem, fix the problem and put everything back to a standard where it's as good as if not better than when it came to you. Working on other peoples vehicles means you have to check and recheck everything, you don't get a second chance when a critical component fails and injures or kills someone.

This isn't meant to be an aggressive post towards anyone I'm just looking at it from my point of view and the other fact that in today's world of motoring £250????? Really isn't a massive amount of money to get from a vehicle with no gears to a vehicle with all it's gears. Look how much a diagnostic scan costs.

Will.