406oc.co.uk

how often should you change it , must admit not something i
have done on a regular basis in the past

An excellent question puggy.

Most manufacturers will say it NEVER needs changing but since when do they care after 3 years/60,000 miles

I have only just come round to the idea after nearly 20 years of owning cars and I did change the oil on the Mazda and it came out really black from there.

Purists would say change it every 2 years/20,000 miles.

It can be an arse to do yourself and it's better to squirt the oil in through a filling nozzle. I've not done mine yet but will be doing it with my next oil change in Aug/Sept (I say 'I' what I mean is the garage, cos after my last oil change episode I aint never touching it again )

Welly

Thanks for that welly, and i too have heard it said it never needs changing
and thought that cant be right. Am going to go down the same path as you as
the garage i use only charge me £20 to change the oil , oil included,next oil
change going to ask them to do gearbox too. Any suggestions on best oil to
use would be great

just bought fresh gearbox oil for mine this weekend from the local dealer. After 100k I decided it would probably benefit from fresh oil.

Did my wifes CR-V last year and that came out fairly black too.

Fog

At the end of the day oil is oil and it has a usefull life span like anything else.

My friend is able to monitor gearbox oil temps and he records 90deg C in the box after only 10 miles or so. The oil has a hard life really.

I don't think the pug boxes need anything special, just an all purpose 75/90? gear oil will do IMO (a decent garage will have a barrel full of the stuff to put in all gearboxes).

I change the gearbox / transfer box and both diffs a couple of times a year, on my jeep

Usually comes out like this....

Gear box, a bit manky
Transfer box, nice and clean
Front diff, as new
Rear diff, bogging!

I replace mine every 40k its due again soon!

Fresh oil ..... yum !!

I've had my car for 50k miles and I'v just realised that for various reasons I've changed the g/box oil 5 times.
First time when I just got the car.
Second time when i changed the speedo sender.
Third two days later changed again as I wasn't happy with the gear change so changed to fully synthetic
Fourth had driveshafts serviced and all the synthetic oil ran out and was replaced with EP90
Fifth drove home and drain EP90 and filled with correct oil.

Thats almost as much times as I've changed the engine oil.

75W80 is the best oil for our pug ML5T, BE3/5 and BE4/5 gearboxes
i know volvo specify and interval of 6 years or 60,000 miles under arduous conditions, i.e. towing or taxi drivinmg etc
pug dont however
i changed mine at 105,000 when i did the clutch and it didnt come out that bad, the main reasons for changing gear oil are, the first, build up of metal particles, the magnetic drain and filling plugs can only hold so much, the rest then floats in the oil, and second is moisture absorbtion, unlike an engine which can burn off the moisture through the PCV system, there is nowhere for it to go in a gearbox so it ends up being compressed into the oil making it less viscous and causing added wear and the risk of corrosion too