mx5cartalk.com

Hi There,
I was wondering how do people replace there gearbox oil?

I've read on some sites that some owners stick a tube thru the engine bay and poke it into the fill hole for the gearbox and just filled it up via the engine bay

and also what gearbox oil do you use? I'm going to replace mine in the coming weeks but unsure what gearbox oil to use


I've already replaced my engine oil but thought I'd ask and find out what people are using on there 5s
so what engine oil do you use?

btw its a manual

Fill using tube through the engine bay technique.

Oils - as per the NA8 Owner's Manual:

Under the bonnet there should be a sticker that tells you what oil types your car was designed to use.

Which brand? Pick one - they are all pretty good.

To get the oil into the gearbox, the most elegant way is to spend $20 on one of the oil pump bottles from pretty mcuh any auto parts store. They are clean and simple to use, beats the other methods hands down.

adamjp wrote:To get the oil into the gearbox, the most elegant way is to spend $20 on one of the oil pump bottles from pretty mcuh any auto parts store. They are clean and simple to use, beats the other methods hands down.

Ditto.

Something to save-up till next Dodgy Day?

If you wanna support local business, why not try what I am using; PM Lubricants. They're at Willawong, 15 mins from your place.
http://www.pmlubricants.com.au/

High-quality stuff.

I looked for one of those pressure pack oil things but couldnt find one anywhere in the redlands, so all i did was buy a $10 garden sprayer from bunnings, cut off the spray nozzel and pumped away.

It was a litle slow, but all i did was stick the hose in the fill hole and wait for five or so minutes whilst it filled up.

I would simply follow the reccomended oil grade in your owners manual, but pay particular attention to the API grade, as certain grades should not be used in certain gear boxes (cant remember what grade the MX5 needed)

Personally i like Castrol, as its a good middle of the road compromise, but if money was no object i'd probably go for the penrite synthetic stuff (but at twice the price it's not worth it IMO, i believe you'd be better off doing two oil changes with Castrol for the same price as one using Penrite)

Guys in the US rave about the Redline stuff, but I read a thread posted here a month or so ago, where a few people used Redline and actually couldn't get it in gear under certain circumstances.

redline sell a few different types. they may have bought the high performance stuff, which is only recomended for high power (turbo etc) cars and does take longer to warm up.

i've bought some redline but haven't put it in the car yet... just using castrol ( i think) it's been fine.

i filled it from below using a fluid pump from supercheap. i didn't like the idea of oil going everywhere once the gearbox was full.

don't buy that stupid white plastic pump. took me 30 mins to get about 1 litre of oil in the box. took the pump apart and realised that the 0.001c valve they put in wasn't installed correctly, so i fixed it. then when i was about 1/2 a litre to full on the gearbox (i also had the entire diff to fill), the whole thing decided to snap in half.

as for oil i used royal purple, since it was slightly cheaper than redline shockproof and should last much longer (shockproof apparently goes lumpy after 10-20,000kms). it also meets also both GL-4 and GL-5, and is SAE90 so meets mazda's specs perfectly. only gripe i have with it is that my worn 2nd gear synchro refuses to work with it when the oil is cold.

There is one nut if you unscrew it the 6th and Reverse will no longer work...
(I cant find the link)

well i did the oil change on the gearbox and diff

it looks like the oil hasn't been changed for a while

diff was black and i mean black like paint

gearbox was very very dark brown close to black


got myself one of those pump bottles from autobarn


now how do people get rid of there used oils?

Many council recycling centres have waste oil collection drums.

Call your council and ask them.

Check with the BCC, I think you can dispose of your oil at the Willawong refuse transfer station.

the Logan Smart Tip @ Browns Plains also disposes of used oil.....do the right thing mate