allanuber

Weather's looking odd outside, but the 350's fuelled and ready to go. See you soon champs.

What a saga. A full gearbox rebuild was required, 2nd was smashed to pieces. The car had only 19,000K's on it and ran really strong before the problem - so it does suggest that one high revving, jam it in 2nd gearchange can do some serious damage. We've also used Redline ShockProof oil in the gearbox this time around, it's done wonders in the Ferrari's so it on duty in the 350. Will post on progress as we go. It took months for all the bits to arrive, and the mechanic did work on some of our other cars during the downtime. As Flamey posted above - the car's back and being gently exercised again. I've pinched one of Flamey's pictures of it back on the road to post here.

I spoke to the mechanic at length today, and he's stepped up to take responsiblity for the problem, and is going to fix it so the car is in his words 'as good as new' at his cost. I'm just waiting on the actual plan of attack, including things like making sure the right transmission fluid is used, as it's not easily available here in Oz. So a slight win, but would have been better if this hadn't happened in the first place.

hi again, thanks for the responses. 2nd grinds even at lower revs, allowing time between out of first, pause, gently into second. The syncro issue looks like being the most likely, followed by damage to the 2nd gear. Other dicussions seem to suggest 2nd gear being damaged is also a certainty given the symptoms. Clutch was fine before dropoff - I'd only picked up the car last week - it's only seen 20K miles, and I'd run it about 500k's through some great roads here and it didn't miss a beat. Kicking myself as the garage was just fitting the front lip/rubber spoiler and doing a wheel alignment and general check over - nothing major and nothing that needed the car thrashed.

Thanks guys. We've been discussing this on one of the Aussie forums too and the prognosis seems pretty glum. Is it likely to be a clutch problem if it is grinding in second on *every* shift? Even at low speed/revs it is really crunching when you put it in second - I tried one shift into second at slightly higher revs (about 4K) and the angry noise made me not do that again. Every other gear is fine to shift into at the moment - second crys for mercy every shift. Sorry, I meant to add that the car was absolutely perfect before I dropped it off at the mechanics two days back. Second was a problem from the very first shift when I picked it up (definitely something happened during the stay there). The mechanic did say he ran it hard once in first, shifted hard to second and heard a grind - but then said he didn't hear it grind again...

I can't believe I've got a sad story already ... So, I took the car in today to a recommended mechanic, who's had it for two days. They fitted the front spoiler, fixed a few LED lights in the spoiler brake light and it all looked good to go. I pick up the car, get it onto the street carefully so as not to catch the new spoiler lip, roll through first and all is wonderful, pull down to second and GRIIIND. WTF? Clutch was to the floor, nice clean shift of the box, I'm used to it being a bit baulky now - up to third, no problems there. Back down to first at the lights, gently into second and GRIIIIND again. Car was shifting PERFECTLY before being taken into the mechanic, and I'd run it for about 300K's across royal national park, over to see a DB9 photo shoot at Olympic park and tootling round our offices - and not a single problem/grind etc etc. So I take it back to the mechanic, and he says he's the only one to have driven it - he gave it some herbs in first and said he heard a crunch when he shifted to second ... then he said it was OK driving it around post this. What do you guys reckon - is there anything else that would cause this - or is the mechanic who seems a nice enough guy likely to blame? (Gutted as the Eastern Creek trackday is tomorrow and the 350 is back with that mechanic...)

Good eyes Pete. There're in the boot ready to be fit on Monday when I've got access to a hoist! More pix then

Thanks for the kind welcomes ... all joined up to the AU section too It hasn't stopped raining for long since I've bought the car, but I'm hoping for a bit of dry tomorrow and I'll get it out for a run!

Just a quick bump on this one, I purchased the 350 from Nick this week and have had the pleasure of piloting it in both the wet and dry over the last 2 days of crazy weather. It's an absolutely awesome car and it's a privilege to have it. Look forward to talking more with you guys!