Discussion
OK, not the most interesting of topics, but I read an article on here a few weeks ago about the same and thought it might be a good idea to change the oil in my gearbox.
First question, does anybody know why the hell they put the plug on the side of the gearbox? Wouldn't a drain plug on the bottom where you can use gravity and a filler plug on the side be a better idea?
Secondly, the syphon idea involving a kitchen baister and a length of tube sounded like a good idea ( read that on here as well). With the oil cold however, the oil was too thick and merely trickled out. I thought about a spin around the block to warm it up, but with the car jacked up my face was perilously close to the exhaust when I was underneath. Didn't fancy blisters on the end of my nose. I ended up using the baister to pump the majority out. It worked but took ages.
Lastly, with the front end jacked up, how can you guage how much you have in when you refill? Someone said it should be filled up to 1mm from the top, but with the car at an angle cos its jacked up, how do you work it out. As it happens, when I took the plug out, the oil was just leaking out. So I filled it back up till it overflowed, which was a bit short of a litre. Hope there is enough in.
Anyway, the stuff that came out was like sludge compared to what went in, so it can only be better.
If anybody has any ideas about the above to make it easier next time, I'm all ears ( bearing in mind access invoolves a trolley jack and axle stands).
First question, does anybody know why the hell they put the plug on the side of the gearbox? Wouldn't a drain plug on the bottom where you can use gravity and a filler plug on the side be a better idea?
Secondly, the syphon idea involving a kitchen baister and a length of tube sounded like a good idea ( read that on here as well). With the oil cold however, the oil was too thick and merely trickled out. I thought about a spin around the block to warm it up, but with the car jacked up my face was perilously close to the exhaust when I was underneath. Didn't fancy blisters on the end of my nose. I ended up using the baister to pump the majority out. It worked but took ages.
Lastly, with the front end jacked up, how can you guage how much you have in when you refill? Someone said it should be filled up to 1mm from the top, but with the car at an angle cos its jacked up, how do you work it out. As it happens, when I took the plug out, the oil was just leaking out. So I filled it back up till it overflowed, which was a bit short of a litre. Hope there is enough in.
Anyway, the stuff that came out was like sludge compared to what went in, so it can only be better.
If anybody has any ideas about the above to make it easier next time, I'm all ears ( bearing in mind access invoolves a trolley jack and axle stands).
I suppose the single fill/level/drain plug is just Fords way of saving a bit of money! If you happen to have a four-post lift it's quite a nice solution and I'm sure the job would be a lot easier, but for those of us with just a jack and axle stands it doesn't work as well!
When I did mine, I used a manual oil pump (looks like a bike pump connected to two pieces of tube). I found that worked pretty well as I too found that the oil was too thick to syphon out using the method suggested (plus I didn't have a baster so the thought of a mouth full of gearbox oil didn't appeal too greatly!).
To make sure I got the level right I had to strategically park the car on a slope so that it would be almost level when I raised one side - not ideal, but better than parking it on the level to start with! I'm pretty sure the previous oil change had been done this way and too much oil put in as when I removed the plug, a load of oil gushed out.
When re-filling, I found the easiest way was to feed a long tube up through the bonnet, hook it up to a funnel and get someone else to pour oil in while I chedked it wasn't overflowing. You need to use fairly wide bore tube because of the viscosity of the oil.
Hope that helps for next time!
When I did mine, I used a manual oil pump (looks like a bike pump connected to two pieces of tube). I found that worked pretty well as I too found that the oil was too thick to syphon out using the method suggested (plus I didn't have a baster so the thought of a mouth full of gearbox oil didn't appeal too greatly!).
To make sure I got the level right I had to strategically park the car on a slope so that it would be almost level when I raised one side - not ideal, but better than parking it on the level to start with! I'm pretty sure the previous oil change had been done this way and too much oil put in as when I removed the plug, a load of oil gushed out.
When re-filling, I found the easiest way was to feed a long tube up through the bonnet, hook it up to a funnel and get someone else to pour oil in while I chedked it wasn't overflowing. You need to use fairly wide bore tube because of the viscosity of the oil.
Hope that helps for next time!
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