Ok but it's $20 and in 100,000 miles it is costing $100 plus getting rid of the used oil. Nice photos of the fill and drain plugs - needed to know that to add some slippery stuff to mine.

 

Hm... To do or not to do... (11,000+ miles and counting)

 

The scheduled service calls for MTF change at 30k I thought or maybe they check it. If you all are driving high speeds in hot weather then by all means change the oil - I have to deal with 25 and 35 mph limits for most of my driving so I seldom get the tranny very hot. The oil photo above looks pretty dark but regular 75-90 weight tranny oil is dark and pretty fishy smelling even when new. Synthetic is usually a lot clearer and no where as stinky.

 

Which one is the "reverse sensor?" What does it look like?

 

does anyone want to post up a diy for the tC?

 

The reverse sensor would be the one with some wires on it - if disconnected the backup lights will not light up. Usually it leaves a good size hole in the top of the tranny to put oil into it - eliminates having it possibly leak by having it on top. Just don't go crazy and over fill the tranny with oil.

 

Okay, I did it and I love it!

A heads up for those who plan to change their own gear oil. There is a metal washer underneath both the drain and fill plugs.

 

Well I got to house sit a friends house Friday night with a basement garage - heated and a clean floor. So I started at 11:15pm by finding the fill and drain plugs and realized right away that I could just about get my head under the front end. Interesting first time I saw the motor oil drain plug too! Big fan on the radiator - don't think that has turned on yet for me. I ended up jacking up the driver side with the car jack - nice having it under the driver seat - stays warm and clean there. I loosened the filler plug and inserted a 5/8" clear hose to suck some oil out and was pleased to see that it was not over filled. The oil IS a little dark and not very slippery by any means. I added some old (20 years) Slick50 Gear treatment 8 oz and pumped in the gear oil I had removed until it started coming out the filler plug - all but 4 oz went back in so a net gain of 4oz - book calls for 1.9 quarts in the 06xb tranny. Finished at 1:30am after cleaning up. Drove about 50 miles yesterday and ran my test loop today to check my mileage and looks like it has gone up already by about 4-5 mpg. Bringing it up to 49.3mpg during a 34.5 mile trip the first day out. I do a Ocean Drive run of 12 miles and usually get 42-43mpg today I got 47.8mpg then drove around while going a total of 20 miles and got 48.6mpg for the entire trip.

 

The friction enhancers are to help the gear synchronizers work. Amsoil and Redline provide their synthetic gear oils with friction enhancers.
http://www.syntheticwarehouse.com/synthetic_gl4.htm
http://www.redlineoil.com/products_g...sp?subcatID=18

 

That was wear from your brass synchronizers. Synthetic would have reduced it.

 

Another choice for filling the transmission is the plastic pumps sold by boating stores for filling the lower units of outboard motors. These pumps screw into the top of the oil bottle and have a thin clear plastic hose that you insert into the filler hole.

 

Vintage- My XB currently has 1500 miles on it. Would you recommend this get done right away? Or is it better to wait till @ least 10K??

 

Mine has 1500 miles, too, and I have bought the synthetic Redline MT-90 oil. But there is no need to do it soon, nor is it better to wait 10K miles.

Figure that by now any initial wearing in of gears, bearings and synchros has occured and is ready for draining. Manual transmissions do give off metallic sludge and whiskers in the normal course of operation (mostly collected on a drain plug magnet). Yet the factory puts the first change at 30K miles, so there is no harm in leaving the OEM oil in for that long.

But also figure that the sooner you change to the synthetic lube, the sooner you will feel the better shifting.

(I would have done it by now but I am waiting to find an oil pump I think I have. It has a hose and screws into the top of an oil bottle, for pumping outboard gear lube from the bottle up into the lower unit, and I think it's in a box behind our boat which I have not pulled out from the garage to set up for summer.)

 

Thanks for the help again Vintage! Appreciate it!

 

OK. . . so at first I tried Mobil Synthetic 75w-90 gear oil. . . and man, were you guys right.

Man tranny had never shifted worse. I had to COMPLETELY rev match 2nd gear, otherwise it would grind. Shifting at redline from 1st gear required almost a 2 second wait for the revs to drop. HORRIBLE. If you drive hard, have driven hard, or plan to drive hard, stay AWAY from the Mobil gear oils. The biggest waste of money ever, and the worst gear scratching/grinding I've ever encountered. Furthermore, the shfiter felt as smooth as breaking chicken bones at the joint. EW!!!!! The only reason I used Mobil, was because it was all that was available at the time.

Now that I moved to SoCal, we have Superautobacs. Hello Redline!!!!! After about a day to break in the new oil, my tranny is as good as new. I can rush my 1-2 shift without so much as a squeek out of the transmission (not that rushing the shift is a good thing). My point? The redline helps the synchros DO THEIR JOB. Even for people who don't abuse the transmission, the tranny/syncros seems to need to work MUCH less to match the revs. With the Redline MT90, it just feels sooooo buttery smooth.

 

sori noob here.....is there a difference n fill and drain location for an AUTO?

 

YYYYYYESSS!!!!!!!!

For an auto its ompletely different; different kind of FLUID, different location, different process. . . completely different!

With an auto, you need to do a drain, flush, and fill! It can be done DIY, but not recommended for a newbie. Ideally you drain, remove the pan, scrub it down, and refill.

 

hope somebody makes a DIY sticky for us AUTO.....

 

Just do a search online. . . DIY's have been done on other cars. . . and it's pretty straight forward

 

What's the lowest milage you should switch to MT-90? 1000?