Tranny Oil

[denguy]

If your 5spd feels a little harder to shift than it used to, better check your oil, even though it is a PITA to do.

[Spike]

Words of wisdom. :salute:

[Bert]

Soft-spoken words and you've been on here awhile. What exactly transpired to make you suspicious? Most folks will report about their bad luck with auto trannies but will similarly omit to tell the auto tech, and the public, that they never checked the fluid levels. You are quite right in that MTX Festys are entirely 'sight unseen' until there is oil on the driveway, and even then do very little until the tranny seizes or flies apart. Pray tell, what happened to you?
When I had to replace the clutch on a Festy 5 years ago my auto tech buddy (much more talented than I) did comment on how this was the first time in his entire life he had held an entire tranny and bell-housing in one hand. Mazda did not over-engineer/over-build these parts. Were there not the speedo cable going in the same hole as the oil level check no doubt someone here would have come up with a 'dipstick fix' a long time ago.
Topping up an MTX is not so easy either. Small funnel and a length of tubing is how I have had to do it.

[denguy]

It seemed like lately it was getting harder to pull it out of gear and then get into some other gear. So I wormed my way down to the speedo-oil hole back behind the motor. After finally getting the speedo gear housing out I could look in and saw no oil, my bad, been "a while" since I checked it. It's always had a few drops hanging underneath but nothing major, it has 180k on it, and still looks about the same under there, nothing major.. It took a few quarts of autotrans fluid to bring it to an inch or so from the top. I took it for a ride and after it heats up it still is a little hard to pull in and out of gear. I hope it loosens back up in the near future.

[Zanzer]

Replace the ATX fluid with Pennzoil Syncromesh and you will see a big improvement in shift quality

[denguy]

If things don't improve I will try the Pennzoil.

[scitzz]

Replace the ATX fluid with Pennzoil Syncromesh and you will see a big improvement in shift quality

you mentioned recently you were getting ready to try that, I take it that it worked out well. How much is it?

[Zanzer]

^^ It worked out great. The Speed now shifts like buttah (for the first time in 2 years). It worked so well that I swapped it into my Festy Sunday night to see if it would help with the notchy/stubborn syncros. Well, it doesn't shift like butter yet... but it's definitely margarine!! And it's getting a little better everyday.


Syncromesh is $9 a quart and worth every penny. The Motorcraft crap all the Speed guys said to use in the A26 was $25 a quart and made zero difference! I knew I should have went with the Syncromesh first! With the SM it was 100% better on the very first shift into second.


I've tried it all in that E series (gear oil, 30W motor oil, ATX fluid, etc) and I'll never use anything else in my manual gear boxes from now on.

[scitzz]

Sounds worth it, I just changed my transmission fluid a couple weeks ago when I did the clutch too. Dang.

How does it compare to royal purple?

[Zanzer]

Haven't tried the RP but from what I've seen from SM I'd be willing to put it up against it with confidence. I've never been a fan of Pennzoil products but as long as they make this stuff, I'll keep buying it. They just got a customer for life here.

For 30 bucks vs the difference it makes I'd drop the new fluid. The fluid in my Festy had less then 3k on it and I still dropped it in favor of the Syncromesh based on the results I got from the Speed. I can now shift the E into 3rd, 4th, and 5th without a fight or cursing.

[shadetree]

Okay Zanzer I'm tired of waiting around . You gave us this secret now how about the fuel mod you were talking about a couple months ago ? Are you saving this for madness or what ? Haha

[Zanzer]

^^ Hehe sorry Actually I was just trying to make sure it's safe and reliable. Better to blow up my car than everyone else's LOL

[jason_]

If your 5spd feels a little harder to shift than it used to, better check your oil, even though it is a PITA to do.

Should of been and watched my face when I pulled the plug out my aspire gearbox.... Few tablespoons of gray pud....

Diff bearings did show some hot spots... Grease burns as my dad's wrench friend says....

New bearings input, cluster, and diff , and she was good to go. Didn't upset the needle sets, thank god.....

Check those leaky cv seals! And I packed 2 o-rings behind the new shift shaft seal for triple protection there, since it's the first part of reassembly.

Oh, tapped 2 extra holes for magnetic drain plugs, and welded a threaded bung on top of case and used a long pipe nipple so it's easy to fill!

All the work tearing it down, why not another hr for convenience?

Sent from my rooted HTC Supersonic using Tapatalk 2 Pro

[shadetree]

Some of us don't care about the fine print . Now start typing haha

[Zanzer]

^^ Soon

I've got a few miles on it now so I figure the 7 hour round trip to Madness should be a good final test.