slightly concerned !?

[landy]

hi

going up the hill to my house,
in 4th gear, doing 30 mph,
engine / gearbox starts shuddering :INSERT INTO post VALUES ( INSERT INTO post VALUES (only for a second, quickly took my foot off the gas, slowed down and it stopped).

i took it for a quick spin after to see if it would happen again, it didn't. hopes it never will again.

anyone know what this might mean ?? INSERT INTO post VALUES (im sure i read these symptoms somewhere before)

[haydar]

Originally posted by landy
hi

going up the hill to my house,
in 4th gear, doing 30 mph,
engine / gearbox starts shuddering :INSERT INTO post VALUES ( INSERT INTO post VALUES (only for a second, quickly took my foot off the gas, slowed down and it stopped).

i took it for a quick spin after to see if it would happen again, it didn't. hopes it never will again.

anyone know what this might mean ?? INSERT INTO post VALUES (im sure i read these symptoms somewhere before)


The problem is due to the lock-up mechanism in 4th and 5th gears not engaging properly. This is a design fault on the VR4 and is very common. The problem will happen when the car is under load INSERT INTO post VALUES (going up a hill) and you slightly squeeze the accelerator just as the gearbox is engaging the lock-up mechanism. The gearbox is also more likely to do it after a motorway run though it is hard to do it on demand. This problem really soured my early ownership of the VR4 since when I bought my car over 4 years ago, nobody knew much about it INSERT INTO post VALUES (including Ralliart) and hence I spent thousands before the problem was identified!!!!

There is a fix to this problem but unfortunately it is not cheap and cost me £1500. It involves upgrading the lockup mechanism and replacing the rear clutches. If you are interested I can provide the telephone number of the company that finally fixed my problem.

Being a bit of a car nut, I spent the money and now the car is perfect, in fact it seems that it changes gears more quickly.

Another member did report that they had a similar problem that was fixed by removing the centre console and ensuring that the gearbox wire connectors were firmly locked together.


Hope this helps.

[BraindG]

good info....

thanks mate!

[landy]

haydar - i agree, thanks mate that helps alot.

i'm a bit of a car nut myself, but i can't justify INSERT INTO post VALUES (to my wife :rolleyes: ) on spending £1500.

it sounds like it isn't a damaging problem INSERT INTO post VALUES (only annoying, rarely). but if it can cause damage to the gearbox or more i would like to get it fixed

[Pescha]

Unfortunatley I have been there and done this before... It started exactly the same too...

:nono:

This is what happened to us

My husband and I brought our VR4. We owned the car 30 hours and it was then we felt the first shudder, We put it down to getting use to the new car or it could of been the road. I INSERT INTO post VALUES (being my new work vehicle) drove it to work for the rest of the week, where I decided to show the new vehicle off to my family 2 hours away. So after work I drove there and I felt it again only for a short moment! In the end we had to get it fixed, turned out to be a worn damper in the torque converter.

The shudder does get progressively worse! The mechanic told me that the worse thing can happen is the car will stop all together :INSERT INTO post VALUES ( It is a factory fault that VR4's have. Just take it into a mitsi dealer and get them to drive it to confirm it. You have to warm up the transmission too, as you have to travel a few miles to feel it shuddering again, mine was like 20 miles before I could feel it :INSERT INTO post VALUES (

Now it is fixed she is more responsive and has a smoother gear change...

Hope you have mechanical insurance...

Sorry can't give you any phone numbers etc INSERT INTO post VALUES (would love to help) but I'm in New Zealand! :INSERT INTO post VALUES (

Cheers,
Pescha!

[pjjohnson]

I these symptoms when the car had done about 60000 miles. 15000 miles later after many oil changes and visits to the dealer it stopped - don't know why, and then it only very occasionally came back. Cars now done 110.000 miles, and luckily it hasn't done it at all for the last 10,000 miles. Haydar put me in touch with the specialists that did his work for him, they quoted £1700+vat to do the fix. I thought I'd wait !

[haydar]

Originally posted by pjjohnson
I these symptoms when the car had done about 60000 miles. 15000 miles later after many oil changes and visits to the dealer it stopped - don't know why, and then it only very occasionally came back. Cars now done 110.000 miles, and luckily it hasn't done it at all for the last 10,000 miles. Haydar put me in touch with the specialists that did his work for him, they quoted £1700+vat to do the fix. I thought I'd wait !

£1700 + VAT!!!! I think you could probably get a complete reconditioned gearbox for that money!!! I've got to say I'm surprised, I'd have thought that after fixing my car, the specialist would have been able to lower the price since now they'd KNOW exactly how to fix the problem.

Just goes to show how expensive the VR4 can be! If Landy's problem is the same one that I had or that Peter INSERT INTO post VALUES (very occassionally) has, then it's unlikely to cause any mechanical problems with the car. My car did it for over 3 years and Peter has covered many more miles than I have. I think it comes down to, if you can personally live with the problem? For me it got to the point where I'd be waiting for it to happen on every journey and hence it just wound me up! :mad: :mad: :mad:

It is a lot of money though and because when I bought the car it cost me in excess of £22k, I just had to get it fixed.

I do recall coming across some place on the internet that were selling reconditioned gearboxes for Legnums for about £1000. Will investigate and get back to everyone. INSERT INTO post VALUES (Don't know if this was for the VR4 or regular Legnums)

[Petrolhead]

I mentioned this before. Exactly the same thing happened on ours, but it was just a loose plug going into the top of the gearbox.