Toyota Etios Liva: Sudden gearbox failure leaves me surprised

I was worried this was going to be a costly fix, but they were able to turn it around quickly.

BHPian greenhorn recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

First serious issue with the etios. Surprisingly both my cars decided to have gearbox issues at the exact same time.
With my etios, the issue was with the shifter mechanism.

It would not shift into 3rd without a struggle. Went to the new Toyota service center near my house run by a different dealer. They diagnosed the shifter issue. But initially declined to overhaul it saying company policy and not recommended. And asked to replace it (18k + unknown lead time)

After I raised some noise - if you see the Toyota catalogue, there are child parts available for this unit. They said they overhauled it, charged me a nominal amount and let me take the car. It worked fine for a day, and became significantly worse over the weekend. Took it to my regular workshop, where that fixed it and a bunch of other stuff they said was very close to replacement. Car was fine but there was still not fully fixed. A few days later the shifting died completely. I was stuck with only 3rd and 4th gears. At that point my mech pointed out that my gearbox had been opened at some point. There was sealant around the gearbox - indicating an aftermarket repair. This was not in the service history, and the mech I had used to inspect it had missed it.

I was worried this was going to be a costly fix, but they were able to turn it around quickly. Apparently some spring had come loose. It's been running fine for the past few days, but I'm still not sure.

Interestingly I noticed the difference in the two service center approaches. The first one had claimed that my clutch was just fine even after raising it as a complaint twice, and their service costs are extremely low. The second one bought it up as a replacement item the moment they drove the car (and a bunch of other things to replace) for $$$$. I ultimately decided to replace the clutch because my mech said the same thing and i had read the same thing from some long term ownership reviews that the clutch becomes hard over time even though it has plenty of life.

Honestly I wish there was a just right approach. But can't blame either of them. I'll continue to stick to the first one though

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