Hello,

Has anyone ever worked on a C3 gearbox? It's beyond my capabilities I
am sure! How much would it cost to have a garage look at it? Is gear
work always an expensive thing?

I've got a 54 plate diesel c3. It used to be that when the gear lever
was in neutral it centred itself beneath 3rd/4th gear. Now when it
goes into neutral, the stick drifts to the right beneath 5th/reverse.
On a couple of occasions I have pushed the stick across and up to pull
off in 1st and found it is in 3rd!

I have taken it to a garage and they think there is a spring in the
main gear box that has failed. They have never had this fault on a c3
before and neither has the citroen dealer! They say it might be
something cheap and simple when they open the gearbox or it could be
something horrendously expensive, so they say it could cost anywhere
between one hundred and a thousand pounds, depending what they find.
It is difficult to know whether to go ahead with the work, not knowing
how much it will cost. I might be prepared to pay £100 but not £1000.

You may remember I have posted here in the past about the turbo
charger: below 3000rpm it doesn't seem to work and the car is
sluggish. It has been in and out of garages and they have found and
fixed a couple of leaking seals that were losing pressure but it has
never been completely cured.

With both of these faults, is it time to get a new car? That seems to
be the feeling of the garage.

TIA