Whats wrong with my 1st gear?

Head gasket with new head bolts ,and thermostat, oil filter and fluids , antifreeze should have cost no more than £80 , Labour 3 hrs £90 , head skim £25 . As a guide so hopefully thats about what you paid. Very strange about the gearbox , it appears very suspect. I would look at the gearbox bolts to see if they have tampered with, or recently undone. They might have stolen your gearbox, sold it to another customer who needed one , or a friend,then put their old broken gearbox in your car.
Or they could have mucked about with your gearbox or clutch on purpose to make you pay them to fix it.

Chris Fidler garage services, Newbury , Berkshire.
November 2008

Should have nothing to do with having head gasket done.

I would expect that it sounds like the garage have swapped your gearbox. Its uncommon for these boxes to have problems like that. And if they do go wrong they are often noisy many miles before they break

RAC MAN DAN
November 2008

they have swapped your gearbox for s duff one when you wasnt looking

nigel
November 2008

Hi its very odd for that type of gearbox to jump out of gear especially 1st.
Did you use a reliable garage?one you use normally and can trust?
When you put it in 1st does it feel like its going into gear properly?Is the gearbox whining at all?
Richard
rbtrans@hotmail.com

Richard
November 2008