Bad gear Boxer 1.9TD Autosleeper solved?

Bought a 2001 Autosleeper Pescara in Feb 2015. Full service history. 41,000 miles. New clutch 3 years ago. Took two mates in the trade to look at it as well for a second opinion. Great. Stupidly didn't really do a serious drive in it till after the 3 month engine and gearbox warranty was finished.  Then discovered when I did a run to Cornwall that it was a pig to get into gear at times. Googled. Lube the linkages on the top of the gearbox. Did so.  When it was stationary it appeared to be great. Solved. (I've since discovered looking at receipts that it had only done a few miles in the last year, and only 3 thousand in the last 3.)

I was busy fitting solar panel, extra leisure battery and stuff for a 6 week trip to Europe so didn't really drive it again. Then I did. A fairly short trip but still not going into gear. Did a bit more fiddling about, bit more lubing linkages, seemed OK.

Then weeks later again, drove to Dover, 300 miles. So bad I got within 20 miles of Dover and gave up. Cancelled the  ferry and drive back home. Clutch was so heavy I had knee pains and gears still terrible.

My mechanic fitted new clutch cable (it was worn so much the steel inner was biting into the outer.) Clutch solved. He also noticed there was a small bush missing from where one cable is connected on the top of the gearbox to a sleeve that pulls up and down. £11 from Vospers. I thought about changing the control cables too. Guess what? Not manufactured anymore. Maybe one is?  (I just sold an 1989 VW T25 and you can any part you want for it!)  Found one cable on e bay for £50  . Seemed to be the wrong cable when I got it. Anyway, bush solved problems a bit so I took ferry a week later and did 2,000 miles. Still had bad change issues. OK when cruising on autoroutes, but come into a town, won't go in to 4th, or 3rd, or whichever it fancied. Went to a Peugeot dealer in France to ask about new control cables. Pas possible. Not manufactured. Crazy!

Got home OK, figured I'd change the gear oil again (I'd had everything done when I bought it. Cam belt, water pump, both oils, filters etc.) Went out to start it and warm it up before draining the gear oil and it wouldn't start. To cut a long story short the key code immobiliser had immobilised it. And in the end an engineer had to remove the injector pump, drill out a security plate, remove the stop solenoid, replace it and hard wire it to the ignition. Not unheard of as I've seen that solution mention on this forum. £900.

But back to the gear change issue. Has another look at the cable I'd bought. (We'd already tried to change the cable so I was getting good at it now!) 
Turned out it was one of the correct cables, so I changed that one. And there was an adjuster on the other. I wondering if it was out of adjustment and not in the right plane, so I spent some hours adjusting and driving around the block. Found the best adjusted position and it eeemed to improve things. Solved I thought again?

But no. Drove 40 mins to somewhere a few days ago and it was refusing to go into gear at times when changing. Back to square one.


Discussed the problem with my mechanic again and was bracing myself for gearbox removal and rebuild, (or buy a reconned box) plus new clutch as my engineer said it may have been a cheap one fitted that was failing.  Then by chance another guy in the workshop said try using ATF (automatic transmission fluid)  in the gearbox. So yesterday I drained it again and filled with 2.7 litres.  Drove for 40 mins, dual, carriageway and town driving and it drove like a dream.  Amazing. Like a different car. Didn't fail once. wasn't notchy like before and slipped beautifully in and out of any gear when changing up and down.  Solved?

Did some more research though today, and spoke to a gearbox specialist who knew his stuff. He said can be OK to use ATF.  My engine and gearbox? Alright in the Boxer BE gearbox, but not good in an ML or M series he said. Turned out mine is an ML (gear lever sticks up out of the top of the box.) He suggested try a semi synthetic, or putting a bit of engine oil in with it. Sooo, this afternoon I went and bought 3 litres of 75W 80 semi synth Comma, put about 2 litres of 75/80 in, and topped up with a little 10w/40 engine oil with a splash of ATF. A cocktail. Drove it again, relatively short drive but still silky changing. I feel happier as at least it mostly has a 'proper' gearbox oil in it now. And it still appears to be really good to drive. Fingers crossed.

Must say, when I Googled I found plenty of accounts of people using ATF without problems, though others said it wasn't OK to replace gear oil with ATF.

I've seen numerous forum posts where people have complained about poor gear selection with the Boxer 1.9TD box.  And people saying they had given up trying to select some gears.  Anyhow, figured I'd share my saga (if you've got this far) as it shocked me how much difference a gear oil can make.  Maybe a bit of experimentation with different oils and even different brands might be worthwhile?

Hi and welcome to the forum from Bridlington 
Boaby

Thanks mate!

Hi,
Peugeot changed the spec for gearbox oil to a thinner type to give easier gearchanging but on my 2001 petrol boxer it had the reverse effect giving difficult gearchanging and crunching. Putting the original oil in cured all faults. Its worthwhile ensuring the clutch cable is set properly, the pedal should be level or slightly higher than the brake pedal, check with the pedal pressed down with one finger, there is NO free play,
Chris

Thanks for that. Very interesting about the oil. Wish I'd known that a while ago. It didn't come up at all in my Googling.
Re the clutch I've adjusted it a few times but I'll check again.
cheers
Bob
PS  Spent many hours Googling re clutch adjustment and couldn't find any advice about that either!

Hi,
Just press lightly on the pedal with one finger so that you can check its height. A lot of garages think it is the same as normal clutch cable settings and needs clearance to prevent release bearing wear. You always need to press the pedal to the floor to change gear, possibly move the seat forward,
Chris

Thanks. And I had already moved the seat forward to get a better push on the pedal. Bob

Hi again Chris,
Just to be sure we are talking about the 1.9 TD diesel?  Any idea what the new gear oil spec is please? 
I checked my pedal and it's higher than the brake pedal and has about an inch of play that I can finger press. As you say I was setting it imagining there should be a certain amount of play, though I've never found advice on that before when I searched.
thanks for advice
Bob

Hi there check out this subject on the forum I mentioned the correct original oil etc when I had a 1.9 TD and there is plenty of information regarding this problem, with the original oil it was greatly improved but in the end my selectors needed replacing
just as I was about to trade in I knew that parts were not easily available for this gearbox so I done a deal on the exchange

But going back to the oil situation the original spec was a great improvement and I managed to get it from fleabay at a reasonable price.
Pat

Hi,
You would need to check with a peugeot garage what the latest spec oil is. I take it that you are aware of the problem of water getting into the gearbox? The original scuttle drain hose dumped onto the gearbox top on our rhd vans, the cure is to fit a lhd pipe about £20 or modify the original and make sure the pipe is sealed properly into the scuttle. Easy test with a watering can.
Chris
Just noticed finger press, pedal needs to be level or above brake when finger pressed down

Thanks Chris, I'd seen the advice about water ingress and as far as I can see my van has the drain fitted to the scuttle and the the top of the gearbox doesn't get wet. I'll certainly keep an eye on it. This is the first Peugeot I've ever owned in 50+ years of driving and I can't say I'm impressed. The camper conversion is great ,  shame about the base vehicle, though the engine seems good and I was getting close to 30 mpg on my 2,200 miles French trip, that's crusing 55 -60 mph.

I just sold my 1989 VW Transporter camper in Feb and you could get any part you wanted.  Having said that, with 200,000 miles on the clock it had cost me a lot of money over 9 years!

Hi,
I traded in a coburn holdsworth vista lowline on a 2,4 t4 as we couldn't get comfy on the beds, short wheelbase, poptop, toilet and shower compartment, cooker and hob, fridge, hot water.....i must have been mad, wish i could get it back,
Chris

Putting the old spec oil in our '95 2.5D gearbox improved the change greatly, our local Pug dealer actually had some in stock, to his amazement.

Thanks to the previous posts on the forum I knew what I was looking for, so could tell him what I needed. 

Hi again Chris, seeing as how my van is apparently running well now after 6 months of grief I decided to treat it to a wash today. While I had the hose out I figured I'd check if my scuttle was draining screen water OK, prompted by your comments about water on gearbox.  My van may well have a factory drain box fitted but there were some serious drips from the edge that would have gone on the box. 

When I took out some screws and and small allen bolts to investigate and remove the drain grill above I found that there should be a gasket around the edges to stop water leaking. It was missing on the n/s edge allowing water to creep thru. No doubt at some time it had been removed by a garage and not refitted properly? (Garage numpties again.)
Anyway, didn't have any suitable foam for a gasket so siliconed the join. There were two drips. It cured one but was still dripping on the top of the air filter so dismantled again and put even more silicon around. I'll check tomorrow and if no good put a polythene cover there so the drips run off to a better place.

It never ends does it?