frugality
Top Post Dawg
Before doing my transmission oil change, I did some searching of old threads to get an idea of what to do. Someone (GeWilli, I think) asked about pictures for a how-to .pdf, which it seems no one had, so I took some pictures. I haven't taken the time to find out how to make a .pdf, but here are the pictures that I've uploaded into the tdiclub picture site:
Start with a car that's still warm (so the oil flows better), put the front of the car up on jackstands, and remove the 10 (I think it's 10) torx screws that hold on the engine belly cover.
The transmission oil:
I saw an old post with a picture of a metal can of $30 VW gear oil (part# G 005 000, G50 SAE 75W-90 oil), and the dealer said that they could get it if I wanted it, but that this is what their computer said was the correct oil for all VW manual transmissions, and it's what they stocked. What they sold me was $15/liter, and required 2 (really 1-1/2) of them.
(EDIT: Rotated and notated picture; crudely but I don't know Photoshop that well yet) I picked up the 17mm hex key at Sears for US$9, but later at my local Auto Zone I saw a 3-pack of 1/2" drive hex bits (17mm/15mm/13mm) for US$8. Notice the bracket I took loose in the right lower corner of the picture; I had to loosen that so I could move the power steering line enough to get the allen wrench into the fill plug.
*Tip: Before draining the oil from the draing plug, make sure you can loosen the filler plug first. I'd be a bugger to drain the oil only to find you couldn't fill it. BIG Tip: Do NOT remove the fill plug as I have in this picture. The engineer in me thought it'd be best to have it open so that air could get in and it'd drain better. Boy oh boy did it drain. It didn't drain, it dumped. And splattered. So leave the fill plug in and it should drain in a bit more controlled fashion.
Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of it draining from the drain plug. Guess I was a bit flustered and busy cleaning up splattered tranny fluid that I forgot to snap a picture. But it'll drain out of the plug where the big allen wrench is in the above picture.
This is where my funnel-with-a-hose ended up, nicely wedged:
I used a small clip to keep the bottom end of the funnel's tube positioned so that about an inch (25mm for you Canucks) of the hose is inside the transmission:
The first liter you can pour in fairly quickly. Pour in about 1/3 of the second liter and then slow down. Eventually you'll get a trickle like this:
Note: I had my car up on 4 jackstands since I was doing some other work, so the car was approximately level. If you've only jacked up the front end, I'd suggest adding the first liter of oil, then lowering the car and adding the rest so that the oil level is correct. Keep the drain pan underneath to catch the new, overflowing oil.
A pretty easy do-it-yourselfer. I'm not sure what the manual transmission oil change interval should be, and from the old threads I perused earlier, I don't think there is one. I intended to do mine at 150k, but it ended up at 154k. Given how easy this was, I should have done it at 100k.
Start with a car that's still warm (so the oil flows better), put the front of the car up on jackstands, and remove the 10 (I think it's 10) torx screws that hold on the engine belly cover.
The transmission oil:
I saw an old post with a picture of a metal can of $30 VW gear oil (part# G 005 000, G50 SAE 75W-90 oil), and the dealer said that they could get it if I wanted it, but that this is what their computer said was the correct oil for all VW manual transmissions, and it's what they stocked. What they sold me was $15/liter, and required 2 (really 1-1/2) of them.
(EDIT: Rotated and notated picture; crudely but I don't know Photoshop that well yet) I picked up the 17mm hex key at Sears for US$9, but later at my local Auto Zone I saw a 3-pack of 1/2" drive hex bits (17mm/15mm/13mm) for US$8. Notice the bracket I took loose in the right lower corner of the picture; I had to loosen that so I could move the power steering line enough to get the allen wrench into the fill plug.
*Tip: Before draining the oil from the draing plug, make sure you can loosen the filler plug first. I'd be a bugger to drain the oil only to find you couldn't fill it. BIG Tip: Do NOT remove the fill plug as I have in this picture. The engineer in me thought it'd be best to have it open so that air could get in and it'd drain better. Boy oh boy did it drain. It didn't drain, it dumped. And splattered. So leave the fill plug in and it should drain in a bit more controlled fashion.
Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of it draining from the drain plug. Guess I was a bit flustered and busy cleaning up splattered tranny fluid that I forgot to snap a picture. But it'll drain out of the plug where the big allen wrench is in the above picture.
This is where my funnel-with-a-hose ended up, nicely wedged:
I used a small clip to keep the bottom end of the funnel's tube positioned so that about an inch (25mm for you Canucks) of the hose is inside the transmission:
The first liter you can pour in fairly quickly. Pour in about 1/3 of the second liter and then slow down. Eventually you'll get a trickle like this:
Note: I had my car up on 4 jackstands since I was doing some other work, so the car was approximately level. If you've only jacked up the front end, I'd suggest adding the first liter of oil, then lowering the car and adding the rest so that the oil level is correct. Keep the drain pan underneath to catch the new, overflowing oil.
A pretty easy do-it-yourselfer. I'm not sure what the manual transmission oil change interval should be, and from the old threads I perused earlier, I don't think there is one. I intended to do mine at 150k, but it ended up at 154k. Given how easy this was, I should have done it at 100k.