Gear rod failure

The owner of this 2004 Vauxhall Corsa had struggled to get to us with only one gear available. Her problem was quite simple: the connecting rod on the gear linkage had dropped off because the plastic socket had worn and no longer sat firmly on the little metal ball.

Unfortunately, Vauxhall do not sell this one small rod on its own and instead supply a repair mechanism consisting of most of the external components of the gearchange. The first price quoted was well over £100, although we later established that a smaller section of linkage was available for around £80. This still seemed excessive to us, but thanks to our local scrapyard, we managed to find a connecting rod in good condition for just £10!