gear oil question

[teigan]

how often should i be draining and refilling the gearbox? i know this has been covered before, but the answers always seem a bit superstitious. last time i did it, i filtered the contents and didn't find any grit. it's a smelly job, and hope to do it as little as necessary.

[toyroom]

Once a year is the answer. I do six thousand miles a year and once a year, I pay £250 to get a rubber stamp in the log book and once a year, I change the engine and gearbox oil. This means that the engine oil is changed every six months or three thousand miles and the gearbox half as often.It's also a splendid excuse to take the boot floor out and marvel at the drivetrain thus revealed ! Maybe it wouldn't matter if the engine oil only got done once a year and the gearbox once every three but... The gearbox is the Achilles heel of the Esprit, especially if you've got over 280 bhp. Any S4s, Sport 300 or V8 is on a sticky wicket to start with so anything to mollycoddle the mechanical parts has to be not a bad idea. Not necessarily a good idea, but not a bad one. I want my car to live forever and the more new the oil is, the more this is likely. I have to admit that I have never seen any crud in the oil though. My last car, an X1/9, also had a weak gearbox and I used to change the oil every year and it came out looking like mercury, there was so much metallic debris in it ! So perhaps I am over servicing the Esprit but I begrudge it nothing. As for the smell, I don't think I have ever smelled anuthing quite like it. It's a sort of cross between Mobil 1 and Vimto with a sickly sweet aftertaste. In small doses, I find it quite pleasant but I once spilled some on the garage floor and faced with it every morning, I got to tire of it. It's also a depressing smell because it means your driveshaft oil seals are leaking !
There was a period about three years ago when you couldn't buy the gearbox oil in 500ml bottles and I had to buy a 25 litre drum of the stuff (with free tap and vintage oil jug) I've used about half of it.
So I would say at least once every two years but better still, annually. Does this help ?

[ragingfool]

I use mt90 in GL4 spec
planning on a 20k mile
change schedule

[teigan]

once a year is what others have told me too, and they do this religiously. not being very good with faith, i'm coming up on a year and am ambivalent. i couldn't get mt90 in time for my last change, so taf-x is in there now. please let's not start debating what's best again.

[Paula&Marcus]

Hi teigan,
Once a year may be a bit too frequent ... but it wont hurt ;o)

If you would ask me I would recommend the Castrol TAF-X ... NOTHING else !

Look what Lotus wrote in the workshop manual about gearbox oil:
[url]www.freudhoefer.de/lotus/esprit/products/maintenance/oils/oil.htm[/url]


Cheers
Marcus
www.PUKesprit.de

>> Edited by Paula&Marcus on Sunday 19th February 18:22

[teigan]

i've got a few spare bottles of taf-x, so that'll be used next change. i'm undecided and unqualified to know how it compares to mt90. if people insist on taking sides then let's at least have some new criteria. which one smells better once spent?

[toyroom]

I'm sure that there are lots of splendid alternatives to TAF X same as there are good engine oils that aren't mobil 1. I think the main thing is that it meets the spec and you change it often enough. It really can'y hurt and it might help. Therefore the benefit/risk ratio has to be favourable. The smell only really matters if you have leaky driveshaft oil seals and you garage your car. I have hardly ever seen any Esprits that don't leak from their driveshafts. So far, mine doesn't but no doubt it will one day.

[ragingfool]

all Redline products are available
in potpourri and summer breeze scents,
hypoallergenic of course

[Pat H]

When I had an Esprit, one of the first jobs was to change all the fluids.

The amount of schrapnel on the magnetic plug was truly frightening.

I'd probably do it every other year.

[Outtamyway]

Does anybody have a source for the Castrol TAF-X in the US? I called Dave Bean Engineering last week and gave them the Lotus Part No. A082F6552S and
was told that part no. has been superceded by another Lotus P/N which is now a 10/50W? I thought this was strange but they called me back after they confirmed it with Dave B. I still don't believe it but they are a very respected Lotus parts supplier here. Has anybody else ran into this at other dealers? By the way it was still $28.00 per Liter.