Gearbox oil change

[classba]

Hi Guys,

Just wondering if anyone with a mapped car has had their gearbox oil changed every 20k miles as per MRC recommendation?.

Mine has had the stage 2 and gearbox map and with 40k on the clock, I'm not sure to do it or not since the gear changes are just fine.

Much appriciate your feedback and thanks in advance.

[catfood12]

At last someone else.

See my well received and commented thread here.

http://forum.rs246.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=98915

£250 of good investment I'd say. Plus £5 on a funnel and tube you'll need to refill the thing, and £12 for a security torx bit to get the sump off. I'll dig out the photos.

[bam_bam]

What's the procedure though? I thought you'd need an ATF heater and you'd have to engage drive during the fill the routine.

[andy]

Mines on 50K now and I'm planning a remap later this year so I would probably consider this also to keep things in tip top condition. As much as I'd love to tackle the DIY route, I just wouldn't trust myself with something like this What have MRC or QST quoted to do this work?

[classba]

At last someone else.

See my well received and commented thread here.

http://forum.rs246.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=98915

£250 of good investment I'd say. Plus £5 on a funnel and tube you'll need to refill the thing, and £12 for a security torx bit to get the sump off. I'll dig out the photos.

Thanks catfood...what was the mileage when you did yours and was the oil black when it came out and did you noticed the gear changes being better?. I wouldn't tackle the job myself either.
Cheers.

[classba]

catfood,

Does the exhaust has to be dropped to get to the gearbox sump to do the oil change?

[catfood12]

What's the procedure though? I thought you'd need an ATF heater and you'd have to engage drive during the fill the routine.

ATF heater ?! WTF ?!?

Procedure is get car to temp, jack up, drain hot fluid. Remove transmission sump, replace pickup/filter, mop out minor particles from inside sump. Replace sump with new gasket. Remove fill plug in side of box. Tape B & Q funnel and pipe to side of bonnet. Fill with fresh fluid through the funnel, as the Audi ATF doesn't come with a spout. Start engine, select D, then N, then R. Stop engine, top up fluid further, mine took about a further 250ml. Feel smug that no one else took my advice. Until now.

[catfood12]

catfood,

Does the exhaust has to be dropped to get to the gearbox sump to do the oil change?

No, the autobox sump is quite far forward and in the area where to downpipes are parallel and wide apart.

[catfood12]

At last someone else.

See my well received and commented thread here.

http://forum.rs246.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=98915

£250 of good investment I'd say. Plus £5 on a funnel and tube you'll need to refill the thing, and £12 for a security torx bit to get the sump off. I'll dig out the photos.

Thanks catfood...what was the mileage when you did yours and was the oil black when it came out and did you noticed the gear changes being better?. I wouldn't tackle the job myself either.
Cheers.

I did mine at 17K. The fluid was much darker than fresh, and there were black specs in the fluid film left on the inside of sump and on the pickup filter, also some blocked patches on the filter screen. I took some photos and will dig them out and post them here.

See my origonal post on sealed for life autoboxes. Remember there's still friction material on the clutch plates that will be wearing and the particles will be held in suspension in the fluid.

I'm running MRC stage 2, after suffereing the Range Rover box failure, and seeeing it's now accepted practice to change fluid on these sealed boxes, I thought I'd be very preemptive.

[classba]

Thanks so much for your input Catfood... much appriciated.

Spoken to Doug today and he said to change the oil between 20-30k because the gearbox has to cope with much more power for a mapped car and especially with the gearbox being mapped too.

I'll get it done just for a piece of mind and forget about it for another 20-30k.

[catfood12]

Chaps

Here's the photo's recovered from an abandoned Blackberry. Not at all retired as it got covered in oil.

New fluid on left, old fluid on right and a cup of tea.

New pickup/filter against old;

Sump upon removal, see the two magnets for picking up ferrous particles in the fluid;

Sump and one of the magnets cleaned up;

Sump fully cleaned and ready to go back on;

It's a simple DIY job. It took almost as long to get the thing up in the air and safely on stands, as it did to change the oil and make the tea. I's strongly recommend you all get this done, whether you DIY or GSI. As mentioned above, I had a sealed for life ZF autobox fail on a Range Rover TD6 a few years ago. An expensive out of warranty fix. It's now common practice to change fluid on these. Surf the RR forums for more info on these sealed for life boxes.

Next in the Catfood does DIY series, the long awaited ceramics upgrade after arguing with grumpy TPS about who pays for bits not actually included as shown included on ETKA.

[RS6chris!]

So would Audi do this work?

Or would their slant be because the boxes are sealed for life changing the oil isn't part of any service?

[Trups]

thanks for bringing this back to the top, going to do this done next month.

Trups

[catfood12]

So would Audi do this work?

Or would their slant be because the boxes are sealed for life changing the oil isn't part of any service?

I would imagine they would, however Doug at MRC has mentioned that he does this (regularly), and they will undoubtedly be less expensive and more conscientious. I'd give them a call.

[classba]

Booked in next week with Kim@QST to carry out the gearbox oil change.

I was at Kim's yesterday replacing the rear break pads and another C6 RS6 customer was there complaning of gearbox whine and missing gears ( his car is also mapped stage 1 with only 50k miles). Knowing this has prompted me to book my car in. Better to be safe than sorry IMO.