Hi
My wife's car got to 45k and because she had noticed occasional difficulty in selecting reverse, I decided to change all the gear oils.
The car is a 1.6 petrol with a 5 speed box.
I'll start with some general observations:
1. All plugs take a standard 3/8" square drive such as you will find in almost any socket set.
2. The plugs are tight and have thread lock fitted. Make sure that you can undo the fill plug before you undo the drain plug! I found that large ratchet and breaker bar both came in handy.
3. All drain plugs have magnetic cores fitted and need to be cleaned of accumulated metal sludge before being replaced.
The rear diff was tackled first and was easiest of the three. I was able to reach in from the back of the car with no need to lift it up at all. The oil came out quite dark (coffee coloured).
The gearbox and transfer box needed the front of the car lifted slightly. I left the wheels on and lifted the body enough so that the wheels were just slightly off the ground. That gave me enough room to crawl in from the front. The oil from these two was slightly lighter (tea coloured) but still discoloured noticeably.
I bought 5L of 75-90 grade oil and used about 4L of it. I keep a 1L squeezy bottle which I refill. Or a funnel and tube would work too. The problem I find with those is that you can't stop as soon as you have filled to the level and oil goes everywhere.
It's a pretty messy job and the oil smells bad if it gets on your clothes. But it's worth doing if your car is at a similar mileage, I think.
My wife's car got to 45k and because she had noticed occasional difficulty in selecting reverse, I decided to change all the gear oils.
The car is a 1.6 petrol with a 5 speed box.
I'll start with some general observations:
1. All plugs take a standard 3/8" square drive such as you will find in almost any socket set.
2. The plugs are tight and have thread lock fitted. Make sure that you can undo the fill plug before you undo the drain plug! I found that large ratchet and breaker bar both came in handy.
3. All drain plugs have magnetic cores fitted and need to be cleaned of accumulated metal sludge before being replaced.
The rear diff was tackled first and was easiest of the three. I was able to reach in from the back of the car with no need to lift it up at all. The oil came out quite dark (coffee coloured).
The gearbox and transfer box needed the front of the car lifted slightly. I left the wheels on and lifted the body enough so that the wheels were just slightly off the ground. That gave me enough room to crawl in from the front. The oil from these two was slightly lighter (tea coloured) but still discoloured noticeably.
I bought 5L of 75-90 grade oil and used about 4L of it. I keep a 1L squeezy bottle which I refill. Or a funnel and tube would work too. The problem I find with those is that you can't stop as soon as you have filled to the level and oil goes everywhere.
It's a pretty messy job and the oil smells bad if it gets on your clothes. But it's worth doing if your car is at a similar mileage, I think.
