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Rx4 Gearbox Diagnosis Here is an update on the suspected cause of RX4 gearbox failures.

Our box was replaced with a second hand unit about two weeks ago due to ongoing vibration and finally a very loud whining noise in 5 th gear. It was re oved prior to potentially collapsing. It appears that the ain bearing on the output shaft has been slowly collapsing and this in turn has eant that the pri ary gear cluster has been sagging into the casing. !here are obvious signs of scoring bearing this out to be the case. In turn" the 5th gear #cog# is no longer aligning with this pri ary cluster and as a conse$uence at least % teeth have been broken off this cog. Our next step is to see if it possble to buy locally replace ent bearings" which I don#t think will be an issue" however to buy a new 5th gear cog ay be so ewhat ore difficult. &y feelings are that if you have an RX4" and the gearbox is currently O'" to take preventative action now and avoid a co plete replace ent later on. Our sy pto s were() *+ ,roaning and vibration in second gear even when on a very ild slope at oderate speeds. !his was evident fro new in our particular car. -uprisingly" the second hand box does not display this trait and the car now #pulls# nor ally in .nd gear. .+ Increasing vibration levels in the drive train" particularly in 5th gear which worsened if we atte pted to drive at anything under /5 kph on flat ground %+ 0oud gearbox noise in 5th. !his noise anifested itself overnight" so there is no warning of i pending da age. -o what I a saying is" the initial cause appears to be a bearing issue" and if this is rectified before the #box# collapses this will be the only cost which is certainly better than 12333 plus labour for a new gearbox. Hope this is of help to all concerned" Regards 4hil I have a 55 0aguna" which basically has the sa e box with out the transfer case stuff. I a pulling the box next week for a teardown and fresh bearings for very si ilar sy pto s. I dont think anything like teeth off cogs has gone" but the bearing noise and harsh vibrations are there6 !he really really weird thing with ine though is that so eti es it feels absolutely perfect like a new car" and other ti es its a noisy harsh dog of a thing. there appears to be no logic to when this will be either.... 7ut the fact that it akes any bearing noise at all at any ti e is enough to have it stripped and inspected66 8t least if you have an RX4 you can actually get a new box66 &ine are unobtaniu in 8ustralia66 Renault dont Haakon !hanks 4hil" 9ust read your RX4 gearbox :iagnosis.;inally an answer to y initial co plaint fro <hrist as regarding driveline vibration in y RX4. I thought with all the so called gearbox proble s in 0agunas and -cenics so eone would have had an answer before this. -ee s like you and I are the only . in 8ustralia with RX4#s and driveline vibrations 666 =ill keep in touch. Old ;art Hey Old ;art" how are you> ?O" we are not the only two" do a web search called #co plaintscorner# and you will find at least .3 -cenic owners with the sa e proble . 8lso within 8ussiefrogs you will find others with the sa e prob. &ate" please contact e and aybe arrange to talk to y echanic in 7allina and nip your potential proble in the bud. 7y the way" I was there working on ake their gearboxes like their engines unfortunately....

the spanners with 7ill taking the gearbox apart and the causes of failure are really obvious. I think you have y nu ber" but here it is again" 3.22/./.*/. <heers" 4hil -orry to hear that" about your box. !he only reason I had a spare box was on a whi I bought a wreck. It saved us. ,ood @udge ent about pulling the box apart before it crashes. !his has been part of the proble that all the #incidents# I have read about have been after the failure so causes have been anecdotal only. -o Renault understandably has an #out# when it co es to co plaints. 7earings are cheap" whole gearboxes are not. In closing I agree wholeheartedly" the engines are unbeieveably good" but so have the last 43 gearboxes I have had in Renaults over the years. <heers 4hil 4hil" I will be ringing you .-OO?..I have read plenty of.co plaints fro here and overseas and they all ention gearbox failures but none have entioned driveline vibration prior to gearbox i plosion.;unny thing is))) re ove the drive shaft and vibration disappears666666 Old ;art =hat is the actual build date and AI? nu ber of the cars that have proble s> 7y collating that data" it ay identify a bad batch of bearings" or poor asse bly techni$ues in a certain range of vehicles. -i on !hanks for that write up 4hil ,ood info and a welco e start to getting behind the ystery of why a lot of these RX4 ,7#s have been i ploding. !he sniffing around the ?et I#ve done over that last 4 ) 5 years =R! this issue hasn#t really been enlightening as to the cause" only the sy pto s. ?oise" rattles and whine" e itting fro the ,7 ostly in 5th gear. !here was one" possibly two" entions fro y recollections of a bolt on the 5th gear co ing loose leading to the destruction of the whole ,7 in the rare post failure diagnosis. -trangely I havenBt been able to find any ention of failures in the 'angoo !rekka 4x4" which shares the sa e drive line as the -cenic RX4. !here is a lot less weight C power in the s aller 'angoo D *.2 petrol E *.5 d!i both have F 55Hp outputs versus the ;4Rs *43Hp +. 4erhaps the odifications to the 9<G Renault ,7 by -teyr):ai ler)4uch can#t reliably handle the specific power outputs. Or likely the section of the inCoutput shafts were not part of the -:4 redesign Das they nor ally ake very good gear+ and they focused on the second output shaft. =hilst -teyr :ai ler 4uch took responsibility for design of the gearbox casing and of the gear syste for the secondary output" perhaps the gear cluster section of the ,7 was overlooked. 8ll hypotheses I know but it ay go to explain why Renault dropped the -cenic 4x4 altogether but the 'angoo still continues to use this driveline in current production. ,ood i age of the 'angoo 4x4 at this page http(CCwww. otoring.co.Ha Cindex.php>f-ectionIdI*/./Ef4icIdI*454. I# interested to know" please" which bearing were are talking about 4hil" it will give the rest of us

so ething to a keep close eye on. I# Juick and dirty pictures below

hoping it#s the one on the outboard end of the output shaft.

9ust because ours hasn#t i ploded yet Old;art doesn#t ean it won#t as fro what I can gather a lot of 9<G ,7#s have @ust #let go#. I have heard of a handful ore but the #victi s# don#t fre$uent online ;oru s. !he sounds ours akes at idle sounds @ust like gear train noise Dteeth clattering against each other+. 4hil ay have found an easy fix" if we can get a hold of a Renault 9<G ,7 anual and itBs accessible whilst still in the vehicle I#d be willing to get out the dial gauges and open ours up easure for excessive play and change the bearing if re$#d" ) ) ) very cheap insurance I&HO. !hanks again for the info 4hil -andgroper

Hi -i on" I agree about collating the info on which odels"if not all are affected. 8ll of the references I have co e across re gearbox failure have been for all odel RX4#s .33* through .33%" the last year here. Our car was built 3% but sold to us an 34 when we bought it in 9une of that year. I really want everybody who has had a failure to send e their info so I can collate sa e and send to Renault to illustrate these are not isolated incidences. ?o real feedback as yet as I think any have had enough and perhaps sold on their cars. I still live in hope however that so ething should and can be done" regards 4hil Hi -andgroper" on ;riday only got as far as splitting the box and exposing the top gear cluster which also revealed the 5th gear cog with broken teeth. 8s I described before" one can see that the pri ary cluster has slu ped and the botto cog is grinding away the gear casing. =here the additional and unwanted play is co ing fro has not yet been fully established and I would prefer not to speculate further until it is all stripped down. However" I feel very confident that the source of the proble will be fir ly established as y echanic 7ill Heuch er here in 7allina is a &ercedes trained echanic of the highest order. He is without doubt the best echanic I have ever had the experience of dealing with and I a sure 7ills diagnosis will be absolutely correct. =ill talk to 7ill&onday and see when he can do the rest of the @ob" but he is flat out due to his other echanic being off on sick leave for the next 5 weeks D otorcycle accident+. I agree with your thoughts that the box is si ply not strong enough to take the loads. !he -cenic is actually $uite a heavy car and I think trans ission wise is possile underengineered.Regards 4hil !hanks 4hil -o" to date only the #end cover# has been re oved revaling all the horror of the da age done. !he saging of the output shaft into the innards of the box sounds like a cone and roller bearing that#s probably D big guess here that it#s a cone + at the pinion end of the shaft where it eets the crown wheel has colapsed.!his would explain why it has sunk into the box chewing away as it went. If that#s the case it#s a gearbox out @ob and a 4I!8 if atte pted in situ.

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