should I have my gearbox oil changed??

[bepton]

Done 80,000 miles. Had no problems with the box, but I've seen a lot of talk about people doing this. I thought they were sealed for life. Does changing the oil improve gearbox life, or performance? My car has a stage 1 MTM kit.

[grizz]

I would change the oil & filter . Parts are not expensive and allow for a couple of hours . Grizz

[hahnmgh63]

I would do the tranny (ATF) as well as all of the diffentials. Audi calls it fluid for life but it is not sealed. Audi will normally only add fluid but the dealers around here will change it if you ask, not cheap having it done at the dealer at least. As Grizz said, it is better to drop the pan on the tranny after you drain it, let it drip dry overnight, and then you can change the filter. Kind of a standard Auto gearbox type of filter, as well as cleaning the pan as there will be a slight dirt/sludge film on the pan as well as the 3 magnets in the pan.
You can ask for recommendations on fluid, I use Redline D4 ATF and Redline 75w-90 in the differentials. In Europe Redline may not be too common but I know there are many great sythetics sold over there. So some locals may be able to pipe in with recommendations. MGH

[bepton]

thanks chaps

[skiwi]

thinking about getting this done myself. anyone got some btdt and tell me how much it cost?

[mbedford]

I used redline d4 in my transmission for the extra safety margin it gives over the standard stuff. It'll withstand much higher temperatures before it starts to break down. Though the box holds about 11 litres of fluid you'll probabaly only manage to get about 7 out. If you look around you can get it for about £12/ quart {0.946 litres}. Having said that, I'm having a new box fitted tomorrow and I'll be sticking with the standard stuff until the 2 year warranty is up as D4 use would invalidate the zf warranty due to it's not being an zf approved fluid.