Do you change your gear oil?

mondeo

I usually do it when I first buy a car and almost never do it again during ownership of the car. Unless I do mad mileage...

Just wondering for manual cars do people here get their mechanics to change it regulary? I believe some manufacturers have sealed for life gearboxes?

Is it something a dealer would not do unless customers complain about notchy gears etc?

Thanks

BrianD3

I have owned my car for 235k miles and have changed the gearbox oil 2 or 3 times, can't remember which. It does say in the manual that the oil doesn't need to be changed unless contaminated. Halfords seems to be the only place that sells the correct oil (75w80 GL-5) for my car. I remember trying several motor factors and main dealers and all either tried to sell me the wrong oil or were generally clueless.

niallam

I change mine every second oil change so every about 8K kms. Car has an aftermarket differential so like to keep things running well...

rebel.ranter

I also change mine every second oil change in one car. The other has the "sealed for life" unit & the 100k miles threshold has been crossed, I have plans to tackle it soon...

-Corkie-

I changed it fairly often on my last motor allright. Is there much need to do it on the likes of a manual passat..

ligertigon

And always remove the filler bung before the drain;)

spiggotpaddy

it's worth remembering that when manufacturers claim life of the car they really
mean life of the warranty.
so the gear oil should be changed at about a 100k or so.

Anan1

My transmission and diff fluids are recommended to be changed every 45k kms.

blackbox

ligertigon wrote: »

And always remove the filler bung before the drain;)

Great advice.

So bleedin' obvious, but I hadn't actually thought of it.

Owen

The 75's due a gearbox oil flush next service, the MINI not for ages.

shamwari

If I were driving a renault that was 05 or older, and any of Renault's Nissan soulmates, I'd change the gearbox oil with every third engine oil change. Motorists shouldn't have to drive such an inherently fragile piece of engineering.

Mr Benevolent

Generally people don't bother about changing a manual gearbox's oil, but an autobox really needs an oil change and usually doesn't get it!

shamwari

mondeo wrote: »

I believe some manufacturers have sealed for life gearboxes?

That is impractical in reality. Say you were to change a clutch, how are you supposed to refill the box afterwards?

Esel

Confab wrote: »

... an autobox really needs an oil change and usually doesn't get it!

Don't forget the filter too!

Caliden

Like some in this thread I change mine every second oil change.

PaintDoctor

PaintDoctor wrote: »

The 75's due a gearbox oil flush next service, the MINI not for ages.

How frequent are the auto's in the 75 supposed to be done ?

Owen

RoverJames wrote: »

How frequent are the auto's in the 75 supposed to be done ?

The JATCO box needs it around every 80-90k miles.

Viper_JB

In or abouts every 30,000k I do the tranny and diff together, it's great though the gears feel so smooth after.

langdang

Her MINI will be getting regular (every second oil change) gearbox flushes from now on to keep that Rover gearbox from going to the dogs. My mazdabanger could probably do with it but it's heading for the scrapper as soon as the clutch finally goes so screw it...

langdang

langdang wrote: »

Her MINI will be getting regular (every second oil change) gearbox flushes from now on to keep that Rover gearbox from going to the dogs. My mazdabanger could probably do with it but it's heading for the scrapper as soon as the clutch finally goes so screw it...

Unfortunately regular oil changes won't stop an R65 from going to the dogs. The issue with them is that the bearings are nylon caged.

GTE

Ill be looking into this soon so.

How much would a gear oil change cost in garage?

DIY'ing that sort of thing wont work for me in the next few months.

dr.fuzzenstein

Yep, gearbox oil, diff oil, fluid for power steering, coolant, brake fluid, all of those need to be changed at certain intervals (especially brake fluid, had brakes fail due to old/contaminated fluid).
When asked about the above most garages will usually say "ah jaysusnowouln'thavacluejaysusbegorrahweonlyservivetoyodasdoin'theauldoilchangeblarney!"
So you will have to find out what fluid goes where and change it yourself.
Because you're not going to get help from garages/motorfactors, they don't think beyound oil/filter/brakepads.
And if you car has a pollen filter, change that too, cause most garages don't even know such a thing exists.

mondeo

When I did my gearbox oils in my lancer and s80 I used castrol syntrax.
Gears are really smooth in both cars where as my lancer was notchy before hand.

It's funny because I remember ringing some garages when I first got my s80 about having the gearbox oil done and they said 'sorry we don't change gearbox oil'.. What a stupid thing not to do. IMO. Easy doing it yourself though.

no1beemerfan

I actually bought some gear oil last saturday hoping to do my Laguna and Micra but it'll be another week or two before I get the time now.

Did the Micra one or twice (can't remember now) in the 10 and half years I've had it and it currently has 81k miles on it (1998 reg) and the Laguna I've done one change about 50k miles ago. (1997 with almost 200k miles done)

The oil isn't that expensive and does make a difference and as the saying goes "prevention is better than cure".

RandomAccess

LIGHTNING wrote: »

I need to do the gearbox oil in my 924, it currently sounds like a pair of fighting cats are changing gears instead of gearbox cogs.

Might need more than oil!

Hal1

The focus with the ib5 gearbox is a pig as you have to remove the drive shaft to drain the gearbox oil. Slave cylinder will probably have to be changed on mine too as there is an audible pitch change when clutch is in. So what cars have the best gearboxes with fill and drain plugs that are accessible for the diy'er?

mondeo

LIGHTNING wrote: »

I need to do the gearbox oil in my 924, it currently sounds like a pair of fighting cats are changing gears instead of gearbox cogs.

I'd be outside doing it now if it's making any noises like that....