I have never done this before but honestjohn recommends it so I tried in on my 78,000 mile van. The old fluid coming out looked relatively clean but when I looked at the drain plug there were lots of metal spikes attached to the magenetic drain plug. Guess this comes from years of previous owners crunching gears. So well worth doing. Like changing brakefluid, something I never see big garages doing for their customers.
Very satisfying doing your own maintenance. When I cannot do it, I can tell the garage specifically what I want done, rather that hoping they will do a proper general service.
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We're not all cowboys y'know
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I am not sure whether these can also be applied to gearbox oil, but there is a product available which goes with your oil filter which magnetically collects all the swarf from the engine, it can be cleaned and reused. I would imagine it can reduce the damage to the engine from bits of metal...
I think it costs around £70. The only place I know that stocks it it Camco 88 in Warrington.
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David Lacey wrote:
>
> We're not all cowboys y'know
True... but I expect there were some good Nazi's as well. ;-)
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I realise there are good mechanics but large garages have such high overheads they have to cut the service time down somehow to make a good profit/service. I have watched good garages go downhill with the work they do over the years as more profit conscious managers take over or the employees get fed up with the way they are teated.
Regarding the magnetic bit that goes with the oil filter, it is news to me. Where does it go, presumably inside somewhere?
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It sounds like a magnet that goes on the upstream side of the filter, after all if your filter is letting metal debris through it is shot in any case. I would imagine that anything caught by a magnet would also be stopped by the filter. Could be another expensive con.
Another thought is that a magnet will not collect aluminium, copper, bronze or stainless steel particles, only ferrous metals.
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Brian
You're right - it seems a bit unecessary in the engine oil circuit which has a perfectly good filter, and will catch only a part of engine wear debris anyway.
regards
John
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what d'you do if your g'box has no drain plug, as I'm told my Focus has (not!)?
I'd LIKE to put synth oil in, but...
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I heard that big garages suck engine oil out as quicker and less messy than removing drain plug. However it would not remove all the gearbox oil. Do you really need synthetic oil rather than standard gearbox oil?
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dunno, really, it's just that hj recommends a change after about 1yr/10k, to get rid of the 'running-in swarf', so I was wondering how to do it!
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Few gearboxes have drain plugs these days. The answer is that you have to remove a cover plate or some other component to get the oil out, and Haynes manuals are sometimes helpful in indicating what you need to do.
eg on a Corsa you remove the differential cover plate, and as this the lowest point on the box. It's a good drain point, but messy. I changed to synthetic, as it seemed to have a beter performance and was a wider range multigrade too. Has it improved gearshift quality - not sure; maybe a little.
Regards
John
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