Can you change the gearbox oil by.

Can you change the gearbox oil by.

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Discussion

vrooom

Original Poster:

3,763 posts

273 months

Friday 12th February 2010
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remove the centre bit off inside the car, and feed the hose pipe down the hole, with funnel? once you drained the old oil out?

Jay

skinny

5,269 posts

241 months

Friday 12th February 2010
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yup i've heard of some people doing it this way. probably easier with 2 but could also be a 1-person (albeit possibly slightly messy) job

MX-5 Lazza

7,952 posts

225 months

Friday 12th February 2010
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I used a very cheap bulb pump (designed for syphoning fuel) from a local motorfactors. Did the job slowly but mostly cleanly.

I Am Milk

1,067 posts

210 months

Friday 12th February 2010
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Even cheaper,

Get a mate (in my case it was my dad), get the car up in the air nice and secure on stands.

Get 2 metres of clear plastic tubing from B&Q (Needs to be flexible) and a funnel.

Get under car, drain old oil.

Feed tube from engine bay, down the side of gearbox - you poke the tube into the hole, and stay there, assistant pours lovely new gear-box oil down funnel into gear box.

You get to make sure the tube stays in, and watch the pretty air bubbles go back up the tube.


Total time - approx 30-40 minutes, no mess and a "Spanner rating" of "Any old tit could do it."



vrooom

Original Poster:

3,763 posts

273 months

Friday 12th February 2010
quotequote all
What gearbox oil i should get?
and how many litres ?

covmutley

3,106 posts

196 months

Friday 12th February 2010
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I believe 2 litres does it. I am going for the tube and funnel method tomorrow. Hoping it will improve the 1st to 2nd shift a bit which is pretty rubbish when cold

dylan0451

1,040 posts

197 months

Saturday 13th February 2010
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i've been recommended redline mt90 by opie oils. My want to change was through 'baulky' cold shifts into second, then crunching into second and third. I'm yet to try the stuff out as i bought a mk2 gearbox off ebay, half the mileage, half the age for £50.

The Moose

23,055 posts

215 months

Saturday 13th February 2010
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Can I please get a bit more info on how this is done??

Cheers

The Moose

vrooom

Original Poster:

3,763 posts

273 months

Saturday 13th February 2010
quotequote all
will find out soon smile

mike9009

7,477 posts

249 months

Saturday 13th February 2010
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There are some guides out there for doing this job - I have just done mine today, with a few hiccoughs from an amateur mechanic. Not too difficult.

1. Warm car up.
2. Get car up on four axle stands - it is important to have the car level, otherwise when it comes to filling again you will have the wrong level of oil.
3. Untighten the filler nut. This is a square nut which is best attacked with a 14mm spanner. It can be found half way up the gearbox side on the passenger side. Do this first, to prevent embarassment later.
4. Release the bottom nut, 24mm socket.
5. Drain oil.
6. Now the tricky bit - filling with fresh oil. I first tried an oil pump thingy which was next to useless and difficult to use under the car. I then switched to a small £1.99 funnel from Halfords, a cable tie and 12.5mm pipe in 1 metre length from B&Q. (I think the pipe I used is originally for ponds or something??)
7. Connect together and cable tie the funnel to something on the bulkhead near the waterwash bottle. Feed the pipe down and into the filler nut - route above the exhaust. I did this by myself without assistance from another.
8. Fill with 2 liters of oil - this took some 25 minutes waiting for the oil to flow down under gravity.
9. Tighten everything back up and you are done....

I am honestly pretty imcompetent as a mechanic, but this is easy...

This made the biggest change to my gear change. I have previously changed the gear boots and replaced the turret oil with little to no effect (except maybe a small placebo, to make me feel better for replacing all the parts and the time/ money involved!)

Mike




Edited by mike9009 on Saturday 13th February 17:57

skatty

491 posts

196 months

Saturday 13th February 2010
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Sounds pretty easy, what oil did you use Mike?

mike9009

7,477 posts

249 months

Saturday 13th February 2010
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Sorry - I used Mobil Fully Synthetic 75W-90.

Mike

covmutley

3,106 posts

196 months

Saturday 13th February 2010
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i got to stage 3 before the kids interupted play frown Probably a good thing as I was having some trouble with filler plug so i have soaked with penetrating spray rather than round it. Round 2 tomorrow, kids booked into the inlaws for an hour or 2!

One thing, Im pretty sure the filler plug is 16mm, not 14?

mike9009

7,477 posts

249 months

Sunday 14th February 2010
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You can use a 16mm ring spanner for the filler plug, or a 14mm open spanner to remove the filler plug. I found the 16mm ring spanner did not quite grip correctly - so I used a 14mm open spanner.

Luckily my filler plug was quite easy to remove

Good luck....

Mike