How To.. Replace Gearbox Oil

[Squeak]

REPLACING GEARBOX OIL - Written by Anthony McGrath

Okay first of all I'm no mechanic and am in all honesty surprised I didn't manage to burn the car to a cinder in the process described below but I thought "hey why not take some snaps then the other guys can all laugh at my muppetry". However I take no responsibility for damage or explosions or snapped bits, tools, bones and other suchlikes as a result of following my instructions and blah blah yada yada yada!

Chock the rear wheels and jack up the car, support on axle stands where you can. Below is an image of the car looking at the gearbox from drivers side underneath. I’ve highlighted the location of the oil retaining plug on the gearbox (green circle) you will undo in order to release the goopy gearbox oil in there. I’ve also highlighted its position in location to the decat pipe on my car (red box). font>



Heres a close up of the retaining plug. It takes a 13mm square socket thingy (pic beneath this one).



Heres my 13mm square socket. Handily shaped as I can put a screwdriver through the small hole and turn it or use a spanner (17mm I think) to turn it too.



I was stunned to find that when I got under the car to loosen the retaining plug on the gearbox it was already VERY loose – Here I am loosening it with just my finger and the square socket! I got lucky here – would not have wanted that to come loose down the M6 one evening!



Okay, plug off, bucket beneath plug spot and… gloop gloop gloop gloop gloop out it comes. It looks quite clean here well in actual fact it wasn’t and the retaining plug which has a little magnet inside it was covered in shavings from missed gear changes!



Okay – left the oil drain for quarter of an hour, grab a cuppa while you wait. Heres the oil suction pump I got off ebay for a tenner – very shiny!! …Not for long!



…and heres the oils I got from Opie Oils. 5 Litres of Silkolene silktran5 (contact oilman on gtr.co.uk or phone Opie oils on 01209 215164)



Here I am sucking up the oil with the suction pump. I had to hold each bottle between my knees as I did this as sometimes the suction was nearly knocking it over doh!



Okay – sorry I don’t have any pictures of me syringing the oil into the refill plug. This is mainly due to me very quickly getting covered in dirt n oil as I repeatedly climbed out from under the car, syringed up some oil, scampered back under the car and pumped the new oil in. I’ve took a picture of the oil refill plug in relation to the retaining/draining plug. This refill plug is located just behind the slave cylinder (drivers side). My picture makes it look like its on the other side I think but just think ‘drivers side’ and you’ll see it. It’s a bit of a sod to get to but basically it takes the same 13mm square plug except I had to use an adjustable wrench/spanner to loosen it as the propshaft kinda makes it a bit fiddly to get to. It will come loose though with a bit of work.



And that’s it really. The hard/repetitive bit is the clambering from under the car, syringing the oil up and clambering back under again. All in all it took me about 16 of these cycles. Once the gearbox is full with your new oil (it takes about 4.1 litres) it will start to ooze out the refill plug. Just pop the plug back on. Clean up any excess. Double check yer bolts are tightly nipped up. Overall the job took me 2 hours-ish. Its not a massively painful job and the suction pump certainly made life easier so I’d definitely recommend getting one.

So I took the car out and what have I noticed? Well the car still doesn’t feel massively different at first as the oil needs to circulate around the parts. However once this is done it starts to feel quite a bit smoother. The car is definitely changing gears better when I change higher up the rev range (ie: when booting it) and popping it into reverse feels much smoother too. Overall it feels like a gearbox with far less miles on it so I’m happy

[Squeak]

~Reserved for upload of photos~

[Andy W]

1 thing to do BEFORE draining the oil is check the fill plug will come undone

[Lamb Chops]

Good point that Andy as there's no point in droping the oil if the fill plug is stuck inthere and you can't get it out