Gearbox and Diff Oil

C

Chris1981

Member
Hi All,

Hoping for a bit of guidance from anyone that has changed their own Gearbox and Diff oil!

Gearbox, which oil and how much?
Diff, Which oil and how much?

Thanks
Chris

Edit; car is an e86 3.0si
 
2 quarts of Redline MTL for the gearbox and I bought a Quaife so that was done as part of it.

Had I not got an LSD I'd have left the diff alone though, still 2 quarts required if you want to do it. Opie Oils will give you a recommendation for diff oil if you ask them.
 
Most (Opie Oils included) would recommend 50/50 mix of Redline MTL and Redline D4 ATF. Both are GL4 which is important for compatibility with certain metals. They come in 1 quart bottles which is near enough as dammit the same as a litre. You need one bottle of each.
 
The above is true about mixing with ATF as strictly speaking BMW just tell you to use all ATF. However, my understanding is that this was mainly to make the shift action lighter than MTF. Given that I have no issues with stiff shifting, even in very cold weather, I'm happy with my choice that essentially uses all oil designed to work with synchros.
 
I changed mine back in April. I always use Castrol oils in my vehicles and so used Castrol Syntrans B75W (API GL-4, ZF TE-ML 11) in the gearbox and Syntrax Long Life 75W-90 (API GL-5, ZF TE-ML 05A,12B,17B,19C,21A, BMW Non LS Rear Axles) in the diff. The diff took almost exactly one litre and the gearbox slightly more. The car was on stands and level. The Zeds mileage at the time was only just over 65k but the colour and condition of what came out of both the box and diff was quite horrendous...not to mention the awful stink ! The diff definitely seems quieter now and the gear changes much smoother. Well worth doing. :)
Here is a link to Castrol 'Find the right Oils for your car' web page. https://applications.castrol.com/oilselector/en_gb/c/search?_ga=2.160806205.1850809260.1510856624-897204834.1510856624
Just type in your registration ! :thumbsup:
 
Always remove the filler plug first , don't let it drain out then find out you can't budge the filler plug , I speak from experience :cry: but it was on a little tipper so I had access from above :D
 
I have 2004 3.0i, manual.

Redline 50/50 mix from Opie Oils as outlined above for me (about 1.6 litres in total if I remember correctly), you just keep filling until it's full. My mechanic used a big syringe device to refill. I did improve the shifting action so I would recommend.

Castrol Syntrax Longlife 75w-90 in the diff, it's a bit over a litres (about 1.2 litres I think) and again just keep going until it's full. Just annoying as you have to buy 2 bottles, about £16 a litre.

Definitely do both. Some people don't realise they might have a very, very slightly weeping diff, after several years of slow dripping the diff will be running low. Mine wasn't running low but it was black and stinky.
 
Millers 75w80 in the gearbox for me. Perhaps a 50/50 atf/mtf makes the gearbox easier to use, but I have no issues. First is a bit heavy when cold but that's it.
 
Remember that the facelift models may not have a drainplug for the diff, and the fillerplug is difficult to access, both for filling as for removing it with the appropriate hex key/hex (allen) socket.
You'll need some type of oil syringe, and for sucking it out a vacuum pump or oil extractor in case you dont have the drainplug.

As for oils, I would always follow the bmw required standards, so I guess for your gearbox thats I think MTF-LT3 or maybe MTF-LT2. There's a sticker on the side of the gearbox (near the fill plug) that says what you need.
Its written on the sticker, but also colour coded: yellow/green=MTF-LT2 (yellow used to be MTF-LT1 but that's now superceeded); blue=MTF-LT3 and orange is ATF

Diff is 75w90.

both oils shake before opening the package.
 
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