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Shockingly clean gearbox oil?!?
bi22le - 12/7/19 at 11:59 PM

I have owned my car 10 years and it has stood still for 3, I have never changed the gearbox oil. I'm recommissioning it at the moment and went to drain the oil. I undid the fill plug of the type 9 with kit to suck out the oil and it looked new, crystal clean. I'm shocked. Do you think all of the crud and contamination have sunk to the bottom? The clean observed stuff trickled out of the filler, I have not pulled anything from the bottom yet.

Thoughts


adithorp - 13/7/19 at 05:17 AM

Gearbox oil rarely looks dirty even in high milage vehicles.


CosKev3 - 13/7/19 at 07:57 AM

As above,rarely gets dirty unless you've had a major failure in the box or a woman's been grinding the gears constantly!
VAG state gearbox oils are 'life long' oil on manual cars,I dropped mine to see how it looked after 130k miles and it was only a slightly darker shade than the new oil I put in.


bi22le - 13/7/19 at 08:15 AM

So should I change it?


adithorp - 13/7/19 at 08:19 AM

It doesn't get dirty because it's not subject to things like combustion gases. It does however deteriorate due to the pressures applied to it. So yes it will benefit from being changed.


r1_pete - 13/7/19 at 08:41 AM

For the relatively low cost involved new oil is worth it, the old stuff will have deteriorated.


perksy - 13/7/19 at 09:00 AM

Definitely change it, You might even find that it changes gear a bit sweeter when the engine is hot after a long run or track use


snapper - 13/7/19 at 12:37 PM

CosKev3
“or a woman's been grinding the gears constantly!”

Diversity training refresher for you...


CosKev3 - 13/7/19 at 01:05 PM

quote:
Originally posted by snapper
CosKev3
“or a woman's been grinding the gears constantly!”

Diversity training refresher for you...



bi22le - 13/7/19 at 05:34 PM

Good advice and one to log for the LCB knowledge base. The oil at the top was clear due to inactivity. Once I put my vacuum pipe in and started to draw out oil it's alot darker.