Constantly reading about the 'cheese' TD6 gearbox woes. Now I know we are on a forum and 95% of the time only hear about problems and if I was a prospective owner who had never owned one, I personally would then look at a TDV8 (another nightmare story).

Anyway got me thinking re mine. Had it from 2 years/45000 miles. Now 12 years and 130000 miles. It has been totally abused,small dents everywhere, including a horse standing happily kicking the rear light whilst its accomplice used her teeth to gouge nice paralllel lines on the bonnet. Mechanically it has had sporadic maintenance in my 85000 miles and has cost a pretty packet to keep on the road, it tows a horsebox with 2 horses so approx 2.7 tonnes all over the UK and has done about 80% of its time, the rest is 90% motorway at a good speed HOWEVER its still on the same gearbox which is still as strong as an ox, it takes a few seconds to engage 1st from cold but has done that for 50000 miles

My question is - Are they that bad......discuss

My car has had it's fair share of gearbox problems, don't know if it's down to the box or the reconditioners I used 3 times before giving up on them! Next time it goes(and it probably will) I'll go elsewhere.

Even with the problems I still love owning the car

Thanks Rich, thats my point how come an abused car can be surviving a gearbox but what seems like a large number cant?

Same as some 60 a day smokers live to 100......

I think there;s an inherent weakness - but probably exacerbated by other factors - maybe driving style - time between warm up & heavy load - any number of things really.

Be happy that you've got lucky

Alistair, I agree to a point, we all hear of smokers living a long life etc.

However' are there more good TD6 gearboxes than problem ones? What got me thinking was that I recently didnt buy a merc because having gone on the forum I found that that engine 'had a problem'. I then read further and stopped the purchase.
Ironically after congratulating myself on my investigation, I realised that the last merc I had was the same engine and never had an issue.

Anyway it will throw its gearbox tomorrow after this post

Well i can only speak of mine i have done 176,000 on the same box.

Well I've had more than my fair share of gearbox woe's, and while I'd like to say it was the box.. I reckon it was the extreme towing that I was doing, has been the main cause to it's demise.... along with a duff rebuild .. if you have your box rebuilt then only take it to a company that replaces all the valves with the Sonnex valves... I learnt the hard way.... and what annoys me the most was I raised the Sonnex valves with the original builder and they said they used a similar system, 21K later, I now realise that it was complete crap

I reckon that the biggest single factor it the boxes demise was not being able to maintain a speed over 50... and this caused it to self destruct... But seeing as I'm the only twit trying to tow mobile toilets with a TD6, I reckon that the rest of you should be alright

3 things to remember....

If you are struggling to stay above 50 when towing then get another car

If you have the gearbox rebuilt, insist that a full set of Sonnex valves are fitted, if they wont guaranty this then go else where... Sta Aylesbury

And finally I found that there was about £100 difference between a recon torque converter and a new torque converter..... I would recommend sticking your hand a little deeper in your pocket and getting the new torque converter  Yesterday I couldn't spell Engineer... Today I are one!
Inventor of the 'Guide-o-Matic automatic wheel alignment tool'
Former long term L322 owner, Up/Down graded to a Classic Tractor!