Gearbox Oil change, do I need one?

[alistair1234]

Car is E46 330Ci, manual, 79k miles, my step-dad did the first 77k and I know it was never changed.

Gear change isn't very smooth, when car is first used for the day neutral position means the stick is under 5, ie on the right, instead of under 3, in the middle. Takes about 10-15 min's of driving before it "loosens up" and reverts to normal position.

Will this help? What should I expect to pay?

Thanks

Edited by alistair1234 on Tuesday 30th April 13:49

[alistair1234]

Double post.

Edited by alistair1234 on Tuesday 30th April 13:49

[MJK 24]

It won't do any harm. Decent gear box oil is around £8 - £10 per litre and at a guess you're going to need 2-3 litres. I imagine a garage would charge half an hour for labour.

[LC23]

Being stuck over in fifth is not a gearbox oil problem. Thie is common on the five speed box in the E46 and is due to a part in the gearbox itself. It doesn't cause any harm so don't worry about that, however it is an expensive fix as it is gearbox out to replace the (cheap) part.

I have a six speed E46 (which doesn't suffer from the above problem). I recently had my gearbox oil changed as sometimes you just couldn't get it into gear first time. The change of oil does seem to have fixed this so worth changing in my opinion if you are having difficulties selecting gears.