4.1 Gearbox Cable

[kellio]

hi yall!

my brothers 4.1 has had a sticky gearbox since he bought it a year ago. he left it in to a local mechanic who says its the drivers side gearbox cable and it costs £190 plus vat from toyota. eeek! just wondered if you guys had any ideas cos funds are low :-( . . . . . . can you buy "copy" cables?

thanks

kellio

[bothwell_buyer]

I've owned on of my 1994 RAV4s from new and never heard of a problem with the cable. Has the car being lying for a long time ??

[Mstock3]

Sounds a bit "iffy" to me, but if it is the cable why buy new, plenty of breakers around, just look on fleabay

[kellio]

yeah , it has done some 40k miles which is quite low but a lot of towing with the previous owner. it was lying for approx 12 months. gearbox is notchy, 2nd and 4th and reverse very difficult to select and its worse when its cold. the mechanic says the cable is seized solid, and he is a gearbox specialist, i was just horrified by the cable pric from toyota :-(

i will check fleabay thanks :-)

[daveh_rav4]

Is it a 'bowden cable' type? I have freed them up before now. If the cable can be removed and the 'inner cable' removed from the outer sheath... judicous amounts of WD40 and oil should get the cable free again! Some mechanics these days just want to renew everything instead of 'fixing' if its possible:(

There are some Toyota mechanics frequenting this forum... they may have particular knowledge of this cable to know if its possible to free it up.