Gear Oil Change to Castrol SMX-S
Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2012 8:22 pm
I know a couple of people on here have done this with good results but thought I'd write a quick guide as I did this yesterday on my GF's 1.25 Style+ and it seems to have made an instant difference to the gear change which was never great but getting very notchy in the cold weather.
No pics I'm afraid as I was doing a full service and was pushed for time and cold!
Ok, so Ford basically say the transmission oil on these cars is 'sealed for life' so don't list the oil and don't even fit a proper drain plug - like a few other manufactures these days, the oil the use in the factory is more geared (excuse the pun) towards giving better MPG figures on paper and to the lease companies etc than actually doing it's job in real life driving conditions!
Castrol list it's SMX-S oil for this engine and you need 2.3 Litres for a full change (Note - SMX-S has now been replaced /renamed Syntrans Multivehicle 75W-90 and is a GL4 spec lubricant)
http://www.castrol.com/castrol/generica ... Id=7068180
I paid around £10 a bottle (1L) from Halfords using my trade card (£12.99 on the shelf IIRC)
Opie Oils are around the same price - currently £9.59 inc VAT
http://www.opieoils.co.uk/p-739-castrol ... 5w-85.aspx
I had the car on a lift which made things easier and although this could be done on the ground, access is very tight from above so car would need to be rasied on axle stands and also really needs to be level to do the job propery.
With the engine still warm, I located the filler - this is under a black plastic cover which clips over the right of the gearbox as you look at it - I made sure this could be undone and the current oil level was good with it right up to the plug (I'd read it should be 10mm below this?)
Now, just to the left of this (and the plastic cover) is the reverse light switch, I unscrewed this to gain access to remove the oil and used a Sealey AK47 Syringe to do this... this took around 10 mins to make sure i'd got the full 2.3 Ltrs out - fairly easy to use and get the pipe right down to the sump of the box
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Suction-Syringe ... B00862VZ1M
Once I managed to get out around 2.25 Ltrs I gave it a clean with brake cleaner and replaced the reverse light switch - I then set about putting in the fresh oil using the syringe again into the filler hole - this again took next to no time and got 2.3 Ltrs in exactly before the fluid started to spill out.
Other posts I read had people saying the stuff that came out was brown / red in colour and this is what I found - looked more like ATF fluid than gear oil and didn't have the nutty smell like the Castrol and all other manual gear oils I've used!
Lasty I replaced the filler bung and plastic cover after spraying a bit more brake cleaner to get rid of any oil spilt (engine will stink otherwise) then went for a quick test drive staying in 1st and 2nd gears longer to work the new oil into the syncros. Felt good to me but my other half says it's improved massively and keeps getting better - she's now done around 50 more miles on it.
The car was on 35k miles but I'd recommend the change of oil to anyone, especially if they find the gears notchy / crunchy
No pics I'm afraid as I was doing a full service and was pushed for time and cold!
Ok, so Ford basically say the transmission oil on these cars is 'sealed for life' so don't list the oil and don't even fit a proper drain plug - like a few other manufactures these days, the oil the use in the factory is more geared (excuse the pun) towards giving better MPG figures on paper and to the lease companies etc than actually doing it's job in real life driving conditions!
Castrol list it's SMX-S oil for this engine and you need 2.3 Litres for a full change (Note - SMX-S has now been replaced /renamed Syntrans Multivehicle 75W-90 and is a GL4 spec lubricant)
http://www.castrol.com/castrol/generica ... Id=7068180
I paid around £10 a bottle (1L) from Halfords using my trade card (£12.99 on the shelf IIRC)
Opie Oils are around the same price - currently £9.59 inc VAT
http://www.opieoils.co.uk/p-739-castrol ... 5w-85.aspx
I had the car on a lift which made things easier and although this could be done on the ground, access is very tight from above so car would need to be rasied on axle stands and also really needs to be level to do the job propery.
With the engine still warm, I located the filler - this is under a black plastic cover which clips over the right of the gearbox as you look at it - I made sure this could be undone and the current oil level was good with it right up to the plug (I'd read it should be 10mm below this?)
Now, just to the left of this (and the plastic cover) is the reverse light switch, I unscrewed this to gain access to remove the oil and used a Sealey AK47 Syringe to do this... this took around 10 mins to make sure i'd got the full 2.3 Ltrs out - fairly easy to use and get the pipe right down to the sump of the box
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Suction-Syringe ... B00862VZ1M
Once I managed to get out around 2.25 Ltrs I gave it a clean with brake cleaner and replaced the reverse light switch - I then set about putting in the fresh oil using the syringe again into the filler hole - this again took next to no time and got 2.3 Ltrs in exactly before the fluid started to spill out.
Other posts I read had people saying the stuff that came out was brown / red in colour and this is what I found - looked more like ATF fluid than gear oil and didn't have the nutty smell like the Castrol and all other manual gear oils I've used!
Lasty I replaced the filler bung and plastic cover after spraying a bit more brake cleaner to get rid of any oil spilt (engine will stink otherwise) then went for a quick test drive staying in 1st and 2nd gears longer to work the new oil into the syncros. Felt good to me but my other half says it's improved massively and keeps getting better - she's now done around 50 more miles on it.
The car was on 35k miles but I'd recommend the change of oil to anyone, especially if they find the gears notchy / crunchy