Hyundai Excel manual gearbox question

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All:

A friend got a free Hundai Excel (1994) that he drives to and from work around 250+ miles a day.

Today, it decided it did not like its gearbox (5 speed) anymore, making terrible grinding noises. The oil that came out almost looks like gold Testors modelpaint, syncros have been grinding for a while for starters, who knows what else....

So, the car is dead in front of my shop.

$50 gets another MT from the local bone yard....however....

The car has 130K on the clock. The current craptacular gearbox has "crayon" marks on it that make me think it is not original to the car? Dunno.......

Does anyone know if the five speed gearbox is a weak link for the Excel? I would hate to find an Excel, pull the box, and find the same problem, especially if this is the second box in the car.

The car is a neat car actually. It reminds me of an Eastern European car with build quality.

[McPatrick]

A collegue of mine in the Netherlands had one for years (that was either a 93 or a 94 model) and he never had any problems with it. Oh and that was a manual as well as there hardly are any automatics in the Netherlands.

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Originally Posted by McPatrick

A collegue of mine in the Netherlands had one for years (that was either a 93 or a 94 model) and he never had any problems with it. Oh and that was a manual as well as there hardly are any automatics in the Netherlands.

Correct. Daf was the only proponent of the automatic in Holland to any large level. Fun but odd little cars.

[McPatrick]

Well and even DAF didn't have a normal auto gearbox. They invented a system that i think Honda now calls CVCC or something of the sort where you can ride in reverse as fast as you can forward.
A lot of the old DAF's disappeared from the Dutch streets in the 80's because of the very popular 'reverse driving races' where the drivers pretty much only used DAF's. They were fun to watch but after a while there just weren't any DAF's around anymore...

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Originally Posted by McPatrick

Well and even DAF didn't have a normal auto gearbox. They invented a system that i think Honda now calls CVCC or something of the sort where you can ride in reverse as fast as you can forward.
A lot of the old DAF's disappeared from the Dutch streets in the 80's because of the very popular 'reverse driving races' where the drivers pretty much only used DAF's. They were fun to watch but after a while there just weren't any DAF's around anymore...

CVT transmission. There are new versions of this now, mostly Nissan?