100,000+ miles manual gearbox oil change

[Retroman]

Having hit 11-years and 100,000+ miles on my little daily runner, I decided to treat it to a gearbox oil change when doing my annual engine oil change. Did a bit of research, including checking on Titan's own application chart, and the consistent recommendation was 2.3 litres of Titan Sintofluid FE SAE 75W. Bought from Opie oils via Ebay. The modern trend seems to be for a single viscosity oil which I have also found to be the case of older BMWs. If anyone wondered what 11-year old gear oil looks like - see attached - rather dark!

The gear change had previously been slightly notchy in cold weather. It's too early to say what it will feel like in cold weather but the initial feel is that it is now very smooth. Very easy job - both filler and drain plugs were a 10mm internal hex and I borrowed a 500ml syringe with flexihose to inject the oil into the gearbox.

 

[Steve D]

I'm due to change the clutch on our 110k+ TDI Golf soon. Although supposedly not needed, I had planned to change the gear oil at the same time too. Surprised me how gear oil turns black.

 

[samisnake]

Used the same oil last year at 75k.
Old stuff stinks don't it? Gearbox still silky 5k later

 

[prt57]

I hope the gear change will be OK in cold weather. I have had experience where non VW oil was put into the gearbox of my 1.8T by a gearbox specialist and the gear change became awful in the winter.
As the last resort before selling the car, I had the gear oil replaced by VW with the genuine fluid. Now perfect in all weathers!!

 

[samisnake]

Mines been fine in cold weather.
Cured an issue I had where itd crunched going into reverse. Really is good oil for the manual boxes

 

[Retroman]

I've experimented with a few gear oils in German cars, over the years, and the trouble comes with more generic 75w-90 oils which can be very thick in colder weather. There is nothing special or magic about the OE gear oil - other than costing around £40 per litre!