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Wouldnt mind changing the oil in the gearbox in my nb8a. Ive never done it before. Can the average joe blo change it? or leave it to the experts. Also whats a good oil to use.

Thanks In advance
Frank

Getting the bolt undone is probably the hardest bit. You'll need to put the car on stands, and have a pump to get the oil into the box. You will also want to do the turret, which is a separate procedure.

Look on http://miata.net/garage and miataforum.com prior and find the procedure, and what size sockets you'll need. My NA had a wierdo square bolt which made things difficult.

The best oil is redline if you're budget stretches that far. Mazda will just use the $10 Castrol stuff.

Do your diff oil as well and in all honesty for the hassle you go through getting under the car and doing the job, just pay somebody to do it that has a hoist, much easier in some ways!

rhysk wrote:My NA had a wierdo square bolt which made things difficult.

About the only good use for a shifter is undoing that particular bolt

Undo the fill plug first!!!

You don't want to drain the fluid only to find out that when you go to put fresh stuff in that you can't undo the fill plug!

I had to use a shifter with a bar slid over it for extra leverage.

Craig wrote:Do your diff oil as well and in all honesty for the hassle you go through getting under the car and doing the job, just pay somebody to do it that has a hoist, much easier in some ways!

Yeah i know, but i aint using my mechanic anymore, and until i find a new one i will do it myself, besides i wouldnt mind doing it just so i know how its done

It's not rocket science! Pull out the drain plug, replace the plug, remove the filler plug and fill it up with required amount of oil, or in some peoples case fill it up untill it starts leaking ut the filler hole. Most 1L oil containers have filler tubes too as to make the job easier. Not hard to do just fiddly without a hoist.

Craig wrote:It's not rocket science! Pull out the drain plug, replace the plug, remove the filler plug and fill it up with required amount of oil, or in some peoples case fill it up untill it starts leaking ut the filler hole. Most 1L oil containers have filler tubes too as to make the job easier. Not hard to do just fiddly without a hoist.

*smacks Craig*

Did you read what I said???

Not very often!

Besides you can just do what Garry did, fill it up thought the gearshifter...just try not to spill the bottle of oil all through the car though like our mate Garry!

Which side again is the bolt? Driver's or passengers?

I watched my old cars oil get done and it was on the passenger side of the box. 2 large plugs one high (filler) and one low (drainer)

Here's what the 6 speeder loks like, can't be too different!



Craig

You can only fill the NB8B+ 6 speed up from the turret, all the other 5 and 6 speeders have to be filled from the fill plug on the exhaust side of the gearbox. So it's a good idea, like Sabre said, to undo the fill plug before you do the drain plug so that you can refill it. Same applies to the diff.

I use a short piece of garden hose and a funnel. Run one end of the hose through the front wheel arch, around the suspension and into the gearbox fill hole, attach a funnel to the other end of the garden hose and fill with oil until the oil starts to run out of the fill plug. Note: the car needs to be level first to get an accurate oil level.

Easy peasy.

thanks for the reply guys....il give it a shot this weekend...lets see how much damage i can do