Gearbox oil matters
Discussion
On these cold morning the old gearbox was a bit "picky" about what gear it would allow you to use.
As it was time for the MOT (passed again, no advisories....not even the ones I didn't fix last year...), I got them to change the gearbox oil as well as the service (10,000 miles late for the gearbox).
A world of difference. You don't notice it slowly get worse but the difference now is brilliant.
Had to have new Aux belts as well as the front calliper unsticking...(a yearly feature...). But less than £300 and no minutes spent under the car on the drive in January, and a reborn gearbox. I think that's not a bad result.
As it was time for the MOT (passed again, no advisories....not even the ones I didn't fix last year...), I got them to change the gearbox oil as well as the service (10,000 miles late for the gearbox).
A world of difference. You don't notice it slowly get worse but the difference now is brilliant.
Had to have new Aux belts as well as the front calliper unsticking...(a yearly feature...). But less than £300 and no minutes spent under the car on the drive in January, and a reborn gearbox. I think that's not a bad result.
tuttle said:
Did you use any fancy synth oil or anything?
I don't think so. 75/90 "Synthetic" is on the bill. But the cost was ~£8.50. So if it was fancy that's a steal!The stuff (time expired) it replaced was Silkolene Silktran SYN 5 75W-90 I think. Which was doing fine until last year, and must have been 6 years old and 60,000 miles on it at least.
Edit: As the Garage I use uses Castrol for everything else unless I supply it. I believe it's Castrol Syntrax Universal 75w-90.
Edited by Munter on Tuesday 4th January 16:44
Refilling the box is made a lot easier if you have a large syringe. I bought one of these a while back from a motor sports specialist on the web (I forget which one). It holds about a half litre of oil and it means you can just insert the plastic tube in the fill hole and then depress the plunger - no trying to squeeze the oil out of the bottle uphill or manoeuvering the bottle to get it above the filler hole. Not essential but it does make life easier!
gdaybruce said:
Refilling the box is made a lot easier if you have a large syringe. I bought one of these a while back from a motor sports specialist on the web (I forget which one). It holds about a half litre of oil and it means you can just insert the plastic tube in the fill hole and then depress the plunger - no trying to squeeze the oil out of the bottle uphill or manoeuvering the bottle to get it above the filler hole. Not essential but it does make life easier!
You can get large syringes on Ebay for not much money. Not sure if they go up to 500ml, but you can definitely get 100ml ones. Pretty easy to refill the syringe.I've done a gearbox oil change with one of those syringes but never again. You end up with more oil on the floor than in the gearbox!
I have a simple in-line bulb-pump which I think is actually for syphoning fuel but it worked perfectly when changing the gearbox & dif oils on my car.
I have a simple in-line bulb-pump which I think is actually for syphoning fuel but it worked perfectly when changing the gearbox & dif oils on my car.
Edited by MX-5 Lazza on Wednesday 5th January 14:37
Made a slight difference to mine.
However, I replaced the upper and lower boots and that made a huge difference! Did it myself too - if anyone is interested, I took some pictures and did a bit of a guide in my Project thread
However, I replaced the upper and lower boots and that made a huge difference! Did it myself too - if anyone is interested, I took some pictures and did a bit of a guide in my Project thread
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