Don't assume the worst! :tuttut:

Having read many many stories on here and elsewhere of D2s being threatened with scrapping due to failed gearboxes I'm convinced the actual percentage of terminal/expensive failures is actually quite low.

I like your thinking! To be honest for the gearbox problem to be terminal 6000 miles after a £2k reconditioning is unlikely. But still possible.

Either way, this isn't being scrapped. It's just too good, plus it's a genuine one off, as has been discussed on here before. It deserves to be saved even if the worst was to happen. I have my 2nd payment on account to make to Her Majesty next week and gearbox rebuild will pretty much clean me out on top of that right now but after wanting one for so many years I can't believe how much I love this car.

Is there a more fun car to drive than a D2?? If there isn't I haven't found one.

BTW, thank you all for you input. Life is a bit stressy at the moment for me so this don't help but being around such knowledgeable, supportive people is making it a lot easier! :cheers:

Its not unheard of for relatively young F125 switches to fail - Neil's only did a few thousand miles before it needed replacing. Did it go in to limp as soon as you selected 'D' or did it wait until you moved? Does it reverse ok?

VCDS will tell all +++

Btw, I wouldn't be at all surprised at it running a little hot in this weather while it's in limp mode since its stuck in 3rd gear.

Thanks MJ. Apparently the F125 switch was replaced about 16 months and about 3500 miles ago but I don't have a bill for it.

I put it in drive, press the throttle, about a second or two (no more) of revving and no moving and thunk, we are off in third and all the selector positions illuminate. Reversing is fine. Good point about getting a little hotter in third.

Thank you, I love this place

I know exactly how you feel. :(

I had recently spent a small fortune on servicing and repairs when my gearbox started showing signs of failing a couple of years ago. I decided to bite the bullet, drop everything and head on up to Glasgow, carefully nursing the throttle all the way, hoping it'd last the journey. I'm a fair bit nearer to Glasgow than you are, but it was still a quite a trek, especially since I had to go there and back in a day; one way with a broken gearbox and the other in a sloooow courtesy car.

I posted about it here (inc. photos of the rebuild process): http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/showthread.php?t=12203

Hopefully yours is just something simple, like the F125 switch!

Funnily enough, I had to rush my car over to the local garage again today because of a gearbox issue, so I'm back in a courtesy car for a few days ...

I've had a slight smell of oil in the cabin for a couple of days, which I though was just the breather valve (not a burning smell, just a warm oily smell), so I ordered a new valve. Today I went to a custom exhaust manufacturer to get measured up for a new exhaust (cats have been rattling badly lately). When we got it on the ramp we discovered the box was leaking transmission fluid quite badly! :eek2:

If you need to move it somewhere, I have used a company called anyvan (online booking) who have trailered a few cars around the country for me, both personally and for work, and have been very good.

Hope you can get it resolved quickly and cost effectively.

The sump pans on the 5HPs are incredibly delicate. Just look at wrong of the bolts wrong and the flange will bend, squish the gasket, and eventually leak. I spent two days carefully hammering mine back in to shape and did all the bolts up with a torque wrench in the proper diagonal pattern and 10K later its damp again.

I assume you have the later selector with Sport mode. Have you tried (as MJ says) Reverse first?
And going straight into Sport mode and/or tiptronic +/-, bypassing D.

Does sound plausibly like a dodgy F125 though....
Whilst it's not trivial or cheap to replace an F125 I seriously think they should be considered as a "consumable" or at least replaced regularly; certainly at the first sign of gearbox issues (along with an oil/filer change).

I suspect that's the problem with mine. It's been perfect since Mackie's rebuild and nobody but them have touched it since. Trouble is now, I have to let my usual garage fix it, which risks invalidating my Makie's warranty. It's either that or I risk driving it 200 miles to Glasgow with a bad leak :-(

If you're heading Sussex way do you have the option of having it 'recovered' to a garage in Sussex to work on it? David is that way and I'm sure would be able to deal with box removal and install so it can be repaired if needed.

If it's not F125 related my next suggestion would be oil level on a recently refurbished box. Fault code scan will potentially reveal all....