Gear Knob

"What's so special about a gear knob?" you may well ask, "and why have I blipped it?".

Well I just got my car back today from the garage after three weeks, having a "funny noise" fixed. For about 1,000 miles it had been making an increasingly loud "ch-ch-ch" noise when under power or under engine braking, and it turned out the fault was in the gearbox. Anyway it now has a new gearbox main shaft, mainshaft support bearings (and new oil seals) and the funny noise has gone, hurrah!

It could have been expensive - but it wasn't, phew! Although it's 8 years old (and it's done 58,000 miles) I bought it new in 2014 when Vauxhall* were giving a "lifetime" warranty (max 100,000 miles and only applicable to the first owner) so there was no cost to me. And what's more I had a free courtesy car for the last 3 weeks too. Shame they discontinued that warranty for cars bought after 2015 - I think I'll be keeping this one for another 42,000 miles!

*Other makes of car are available.