The car is nearly 20 years old.
For machinery, that's irrelevant. (My TR7 is over double that age). That's why farmer's machinery age is measured in hours used, not years. What's the mileage and has it been used to tow heavy caravans in the heat?
A famous American youtuber called Scotty Kilmer has said that changing transmission fluid on an old car when it's never been done before could lead to problems with the transmission shifting properly. Do you agree.........
...yes, I do. I have read this from other autobox pundits, probably more expert than SK. You risk disturbing particles which can get into the clever bits.
, or should I change the fluid?
I wouldn't. Our old auto Passat went to over 240,000 miles with no problems. Ditto our old Focus auto; > 160,000. My Audis had 'sealed for life' ZF boxes - interfere with them at your peril. Beware ignorant unscrupulous mechanics posing as 'experts' looking for (unnecessary) work.
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The car is nearly 20 years old.
For machinery, that's irrelevant. (My TR7 is over double that age). That's why farmer's machinery age is measured in hours used, not years. What's the mileage and has it been used to tow heavy caravans in the heat?
A famous American youtuber called Scotty Kilmer has said that changing transmission fluid on an old car when it's never been done before could lead to problems with the transmission shifting properly. Do you agree.........
...yes, I do. I have read this from other autobox pundits, probably more expert than SK. You risk disturbing particles which can get into the clever bits.
, or should I change the fluid?
I wouldn't. Our old auto Passat went to over 240,000 miles with no problems. Ditto our old Focus auto; > 160,000. My Audis had 'sealed for life' ZF boxes - interfere with them at your peril. Beware ignorant unscrupulous mechanics posing as 'experts' looking for (unnecessary) work.
"Sealed for life" - where does that come from - no automatic gearbox is sealed for a start and the lack of a specific time and/or mileage recommendation doesn't mean that the condition shouldn't be checked from time to time and fluid replaced if necessary.
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What i do with my autoboxes on used bought cars is drain and refil the sump (usually 4 or 5 litres) then run the engine for 10 minutes shifting the box through all the gears, you could take it for a short drive if you wished, then repeat, i do this probably 3 times the first time then swap a sumpful every couple of years.
No you haven't changed all the oil but you have changed a good amount of it each time and the once every couple of years repeat keeps some fresh oil going in, i don't disturb the sump and wouldn't on a high mileage previously neglected vehicle unless the first drain revealed burned or seriously contaminated oil.
I did change the Subaru oil filter because its a simple spin on filter, transmission oil and filter easier to swap than a typical engine oil and filter change, wish the Landcruiser was as easy, sadly when they started fitting the 5 speed autobox they did away with the dipstick...a bad move Toyota, bring back the transmission disptick because it makes oil changes easy to do anywhere.
I don't buy from the maker parts dept but instead buy the correct spec oil in bulk pack of usually 20 litres which makes the job cheap as chips to do, thankfully neither of our cars require any specialist equipment for autobox oil changing.
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What i do with my autoboxes on used bought cars is drain and refil the sump (usually 4 or 5 litres) then run the engine for 10 minutes shifting the box through all the gears, you could take it for a short drive if you wished, then repeat, i do this probably 3 times the first time then swap a sumpful every couple of years.
How many cars have autoboxes that share the engine oil ? I thought only old-type Minis did that, and it was found not to be a very clever idea ? ATF is not the same as engine oil, is it ?
I ask only out of ignorance and interest ... :-)
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Some BL models shared the gearbox and engine oil, with the gearbox in the sump, I'm not so sure about autos.
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How many cars have autoboxes that share the engine oil ? I thought only old-type Minis did that, and it was found not to be a very clever idea ? ATF is not the same as engine oil, is it ?
I ask only out of ignorance and interest ... :-)
Andrew you're winding me up i think, good one though :-)
I of course am referring to sump in this case as the gearbox sump.
Last car i had (awful thing) that had mutual engine and gearbox oils was my Austin 2200 Landcrab, though possibly the B series engined Princess might have done too.
I recall an engine oil change on that 2200 comprised 22 pints if my memory is good, the only good thing about that car was that the engine and box was so heavy it was unstoppable in heavy snow, on its required 'reinforced' van tyres.
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“Last car i had (awful thing) that had mutual engine and gearbox oils was my Austin 2200 Landcrab, though possibly the B series engined Princess might have done too”
My neighbour had one of these with an auto box. Did that also share the oil? If I remember it had the gear selector up on the dash to the right of the steering wheel.
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“Last car i had (awful thing) that had mutual engine and gearbox oils was my Austin 2200 Landcrab, though possibly the B series engined Princess might have done too” My neighbour had one of these with an auto box. Did that also share the oil? If I remember it had the gear selector up on the dash to the right of the steering wheel.
That i don't know, i do know the engine and box combo was an unbelievable weight, had to pull the whole caboodle out to reshell the crankshaft and my 4 poster lifting frame started to sink in the road outside.
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I of course am referring to sump in this case as the gearbox sump.Last car i had (awful thing) that had mutual engine and gearbox oils was my Austin 2200 Landcrab, though possibly the B series engined Princess might have done too.
GB, from memory, Minis, Metros, Maxis, Maestros, Montegos, Land crabs, Princesses and Ambassadors all had gearboxes in the sump. The 2200 was reputed to be an excellent car, after they sorted out the driveshaft angle on the earlier ones.
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GB, from memory, Minis, Metros, Maxis, Maestros, Montegos, Land crabs, Princesses and Ambassadors all had gearboxes in the sump. The 2200 was reputed to be an excellent car, after they sorted out the driveshaft angle on the earlier ones.
I think you've got them all there BT but didn't realise the Montego carried the design too, never really gelled with the Princess despite owning one till it was hit up the back and folded like a cheap umbrella, i used to look after a mates Ambassador that was quite a nice car overall, my favourite of them all was the Landcrab 1800S, the B series was a reliable engine and so easy to work on.
My 2200 had a severely worn final drive in the transmission, not much i could do about the play in that but i rebuilt the drive shafts using new steel balls and can even remember the size of them, 25/32", how come i can remember that (had to order a bag of 50 from the bearing shop) and phone numbers from 50 years ago but forget why i walked to another room in the house.
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I don't think Maestros and Montegos did, they had the gearbox bolted on the end. It was a VW unit but I think some later Montegos used Honda.
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I don't think Maestros and Montegos did, they had the gearbox bolted on the end. It was a VW unit but I think some later Montegos used Honda.
Agreed, the Maestro/Montego used a VW manual gearbox and Honda automatic transmission.
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<< Andrew you're winding me up i think, good one though :-) I of course am referring to sump in this case as the gearbox sump. >>
Sorry, GB, it wasn't a wind-up. I thought a gearbox was just that, with gear oil in it - no 'sump' as such ?
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<< Andrew you're winding me up i think, good one though :-) I of course am referring to sump in this case as the gearbox sump. >>
Sorry, GB, it wasn't a wind-up. I thought a gearbox was just that, with gear oil in it - no 'sump' as such ?
No apology necessary Andrew, if you haven't had cause to work under automatics no reason you should expect them to be any different to a manual box.
The similarity and distance between some engine and auto transmission sumps i wonder how many people have drained the wrong one and then gone on to not only leave the transmission low but go on to double the oil content of the engine, with multiple variations on the theme, from watching those really quite worrying ''Just Rolled In'' videos on youtube anything is possible, they've seen all sorts of muck pouring out of drain holes if they haven't had to remove the sump and trowel the filthy jelly that might have once been oil, in a recent video they remove the sump after a car went 98k miles without an oil change, that has to be a record...though keep in mind most HGVs are now on 100,000 kms oil change intervals..
With some autobox sumps there's two plugs on the bottom (my Landcruiser is like this), one is the drain plug the other the level plug, obviously the latter has a 'collar' or tube above the sump plug inside or there would be 2 drain plugs...to check the levels on most auto boxes the engine has to be running and the transmission in Park, my LC requires the transmission to be at a certain temperature, i use a laser thermometer if i can't be bothered to link up 'techstream' diagnostics.
With other autoboxes there's a dipstick (through which tube you refill the box) which is marked with hot and cold levels, purely out of interest most Subarus have a third dipstick for the front diff...our Forester gearbox has its own spin on external oil filter, these work opposite to an engine oil filter in that they only filter a fraction of the oil constantly where an engine filter filters all (unless the by pass opens), its been known for people to fit a much cheaper engine oil filter to these Subaru auto boxes by mistake or attempting to save a few quid, but the engine filter can't cope with the massive oil flow inside an autobox so the box is starved of oil...silly mistake, the box filter isn't a normal service item and only needs changing after high mileages maybe only once or twice in the life of a typical car.
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