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Manual Gearbox Oil Change

45K views 20 replies 14 participants last post by  dbrick 
#1 ·
The maintenance info in the car's factory owners manual goes up to 105K miles, but has no interval or even mention of changing the oil in a manual transmission. Haynes, OTOH, says change manual gearbox oil at 60K.

The idea of "forever" lubricant makes me nervous. The car has 60K miles and is eleven years old, and I'd like to keep it another ten years. I'm inclined to get the oil changed. What do you think?

David Brick
Santa Cruz CA
2001 V6 GLS
 
#4 ·
Whatever you do don't remove the gearbox drain plug until you know for sure that you are able to loosen and remove the upper gearbox fill plug. No joke. Be sure you can refill before you drain.
 
#6 ·
98 1.8 5spd. Changed my fluid at around 60k also. In cold weather, I would have difficulty selecting gears sometimes. Changing the oil made it really smooth. I'm at 130k now with no further problems, so it's a good idea to change it. I used this: Redline MT-90 Synthetic Transmission Oil
 
#7 ·
#8 ·
I've tried stock, redline mt-90, royal purple, motul gear 300 and motul motylgear. Redline seemed a little crunchy going 1-2 and cold weather was not too good. The motylgear 10w-40 GL4 (same weight as 75w-90) shifts the best and seems to work as good or better than stock in cold. I noticed after using it 30k miles it was starting to feel a little notchy so I just bought a case from amazon and changed it and it's smooth as butter again.
 
#9 ·
Hi guys,
today I had a proper look at the gearbox and like many others I have an Hex 17mm as fill plug and a star tamper-proof 16mm for sump plug.
I saw a tool for 6.50 on ebay to tackle this last one.
I am not too comfortable using the vice as suggested on other forum, because the plugs have been there 13 years and I fear they may break.
I sprayed WD40 on them and I will repeat the treatment on a daily basis for a week or so, hoping not to have any problem when I eventually do this oil change.
I have seen this magnetic sump plug:

All VW Transmission 2009 M24x1 5

Is it worth investing £18 odd or should I just refit the original one.
Other option is to buy a replacement from my local GFS for about a fiver.
What do you think?

Also, in my haynes manual I was looking for the correct torque to refit these plugs, but there are listed two kind of transmissions (01E/0A1 and 012/01W).
How do I know what transmission I have?
Mine is a B5 1.8T 20V R reg (1998) if it can help.
Thanks
 
#10 ·
Hi guys,
I was looking at my posts and realised why I got very few replies (near none), because I made it a bit confusing.
So I try to summarise my questions in a nutshell.

I have a B5 Estate, 1.8T, 20V, 1998 (R reg)

1. What oil do you recommend? Many options out there, but not sure about final verdict. I mainly use the car in town, so a lot of gear changes in traffic.
2. Should I buy this magnetic plug All VW Transmission 2009 M24x1 5 for £18 or is it just a waste of money?
3. After I drain the gearbox and before I refill it with the required oil, should I flush it with cheaper 10W40 engine oil? (I have a four litre can which has no other use in the shed) Or is it a bad idea?
4. How do I know what transmission I have? In my haynes manual I was looking for the correct torque to refit these plugs, but there are listed two kind of transmissions (01E/0A1 and 012/01W) with very different torque required.

Please light my path to a successful gearbox oil change as I love my Passat and I want to run it for as long as possible.

Thanks
 
#12 ·
1. I really liked the Royal Purple Gear Max. OE would be good. Do NOT use GL5.
2. Waste IMHO.
3. No.
4. I didn't torque mine on any of my VW/Audis. Just good and tight, but not using a gorilla arm on it. If you are worried, you can use the lower figure first, then tighten up to the higher if you find it's leaking. I believe the 01E is the FWD and the 012 is the 4motion.

My plugs in the 99 Audi came out easily. the threads don't sieze or corrode together.
 
#11 ·
Use the OEM gearbox oil. I'm still running the original fluid over 200k miles, never changed, or at least I do not own any service records indicating such. I don't think you really have anything to worry about unless you've grinded gears a lot and you have bits of metal flowing through the transmission. I emptied the tranny on a 2001 Jetta with a 5 speed @ 105k miles and the oil was super clean, it barely discolored from the new stuff. I think the logic behind a lifetime oil is the fact that there are no byproducts of a transmission, no carbon buildup, air intake to introduce dust, etc., no excess heat that murks up the oil and breaks it down. The inside of that transmission is pretty much sterile, it's a sealed case. Just my $0.02.
 
#13 ·
if you decide to use any oil besides OEM, it is recommended (by popular consent here) that you not use Redline if you live in an environment that gets cold. Redline causes hard shifts before warmup in cold weather.

Other than that, unless you seriously abuse your manual transmission, I wouldn't be over-concerned. I changed my transmission lube (and used Pentosin as a replacement) at around 230K miles. I'm with zak re: torque specs on the transmission fill and drain plugs - nice and snug is likely to be adequate; if they leak, tighten 'em a little bit more.
 
#20 ·
It is recommended (by popular consent here) that you not use RedLine
if you live in an environment that gets cold.
RedLine causes hard shifts before warmup in cold weather.
I must disagree...
I live high up in the northern part of Sweden with very low temperatures during winter
and I have used RedLine gearoils for many years in my different cars.
I have never had any problems with harsh shifting during winter.

RedLine MT90 is too thick, but RedLine MTL is pretty good.
RedLine recomends MT90 for VW/Audi manual transmissions.
But, yes the MTL is thinner and can also be used for example in very cold climate.

I use a blend of 50% RedLine MT90 and 50% RedLine ShockproofOil in all my cars.
 
#16 · (Edited)
Changed my trans oil today, When cold it was getting real hard to shift into 2nd and 3rd and with over 246,000 on the car I figured it was time. Drained the old oil out and it had alot of tiny metal flakes in it. I've read alot of the post on PW about gear oils , So heres my recipe : 1qt of RoyalPurple Max 75W90 , 1qt Pennzoil Synchromesh , then topped it off with Stalube 85w90 GL-4 ( the reasoning behind 85W is the Synchromesh seems to be abit thin ) . I put about 100 miles on the car today and so far its shifting great , the lowest temp out today was in the 40's but hopeful the temp will drop down in the 20's so I can get a real feel for the change ( and then go right by up into the 70's :-] )
 
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