02J 5th Gear Lubrication Modification

[IndigoBlueWagon]

You also don't know if the overfilling caused the issues. My guru just swapped fluid in my '99.5 Golf when he did the 5th gear upgrade. He said the fluid was very dirty after only 10K miles. But the oil I drained at 250K miles could well have been the OE fill, and the detergents in the new oil may have freed up a lot of contaminants in the transmission.

I've adopted a habit of changing gear oil every 40K or so. Maybe too frequent, but it seems to get really dirty if I let it go longer.

 

[Fahrvegnugen]

Guru I talked to says 40k too. I got a new trans and drove it 1000 miles. Kind of notchy with trouble getting into first gear. At 1000 miles I changed the fluid on jackstands until it was dripping out and it has been better ever since. Having slightly more is better than slightly less.

 

[Andyinchville1]

HI,

Rather than starting A new thread I was thinking of an easier way to overfill the trans. since I have to check my trans fluid level soon ( I had my skid plate off and I noticed that the drain plug had a drip forming on it .... I thought about simply removing the drain plug, installing a new copper washer to seal it and then redoing the drain plug BUT that would loose alot of fluid and I only have about 40K on the oil plus the leak is very small (the underside of the skidplate catches it all and the amount is so small nothing is wet but you can see were some drips got dust to dry it up).

Anyways, how about using a plumbing male / female 90 degree coupler and add a short length of male / male riser pipe and then a screw on cap on top as a cap (or if you want to get "fancy" rig up enough pipe off the top of the riser to extend up into the engine compartment and make a dipstick ....
That way the trans fluid level can be measured like trannies of old and you can add as much oil as you want to over fill things to your hearts content.

I guess the real trick is finding that male / female 90 degree coupler .... what is the thread pitch of the normal plug that goes into the filler hole?

I am assuming metric and I'm not sure normal plumbing stuff comes in metric BUT I'm sure it probably can be found somewhere on the huge net.

Thanks in advance for any and all help on that ....

Andrew

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

First, there's no washer on the drain plug. I'd check and make sure it's tight.

Easy way to get some extra fluid in the trans is to raise the front of the car. Drive it up on ramps, Viola.

 

[jmodge]

When I did our 5th gear oil mods I put some grease on the bit to catch shavings, used a small shop vac necked down to 3/8", and left the gearcase full to flush any metal I didn't catch. No need to grind slots, one or to holes is better than nothing.

 

[John Wesley Hardin]

I may be wrong, but I think that is backwards. The cover is on the driver's side, so the cavity would fill in a hard right turn, and would "drain" in a left turn.

Regarding an earlier recommendation for me to just fill the fluid, my situation is a little more complicated.

I had a persistent 1cm or half-inch low fluid level. Two weeks before Christmas, I changed the fluid and got it a tiny bit above the fill hole drain level.

Two weeks later, literally on Christmas day, I had a slipping clutch. The first I noticed it was at about 80 mph---I hit a big wind gust head on and my rpms went really high. I slowed down (wind gusts scare me at high speed), and started thinking about what to do.

I read everything I could find on tdiclub, then bought a C60/VR6 setup. Under the car looking at everything, I noticed that the passenger side transmission output shaft flange (got that?) is lined up perfectly to the clutch vent slots. I thought maybe the low fluid level was the drain level of a bad seal, and when I filled it, that seal started leaking. It it was that right-hand side output shaft seal, it can run out the shaft and get flung off the flange into the clutch vent slots. My two guesses are that right-hand side output shaft, or the input shaft seal near the clutch itself. I've bought all those.

In the meantime, I babied that clutch for 3 or 4 months with no slippage I could detect. I was planning to change it, and a guy at work asked what it means when I said the clutch slipped. So we went to lunch, and I did the second gear test (Do first to second shift at low rpm, then floor it)---surprise---no slippage. I've been driving it like I stole it since, and still no slippage.

But I know I'm losing fluid somewhere, and I've got a bad outer CV boot to fix. So I'm thinking I'll just take off the half-shafts, fix the one boot, drill that hole in my fifth gear cavity (and check that gasket on the cover), then pull the output shafts and change those seals (they were like 2 for $12).

I'm gonna get a drill bit and some aluminum and drill some at my vise to see how much debris goes to the inside of the hole. My plan is to drill it with the fluid in. To stop every few seconds before break through to clear the hole and the bit. To have some q-tips to pull debris out. To maybe have some sticky tape on the end of a wire to pick up stuff through the hole. (I'm considering breaking through a tiny bit with the 1/4 inch, switching to a 1/8 to get a flow of oil, then switching to the 1/4. I don't know.) If I can find some good filter paper, I might filter the drained fluid and run it through again. It's only got about 20,000 miles on it. (I've got 2L I bought to do the clutch).

I'm trying to find an o-ring or a little metal spring clamp to put on that right-hand output shaft so if the seal goes again, this little o-ring will fling off the oil before it runs out to the flange and is lined up with the clutch vents.

I'm a little worried about it, but I want to get at least another 100,000 miles out of my car. That's 2.5 years. I also notice I don't drive as hard in the winter, so I really want that flow of oil into my fifth gear cavity.

Wouldnt a left handed drill bit work better? Left spinning , I dont know what they call them, but when rotating counter clockwise they drill holes. Used for drilling out bolts so you can re tap the hole

 

[John Wesley Hardin]

When I did our 5th gear oil mods I put some grease on the bit to catch shavings, used a small shop vac necked down to 3/8", and left the gearcase full to flush any metal I didn't catch. No need to grind slots, one or to holes is better than nothing.

That sounds like the way to go.

 

[pkhoury]

You also don't know if the overfilling caused the issues. My guru just swapped fluid in my '99.5 Golf when he did the 5th gear upgrade. He said the fluid was very dirty after only 10K miles. But the oil I drained at 250K miles could well have been the OE fill, and the detergents in the new oil may have freed up a lot of contaminants in the transmission.

I've adopted a habit of changing gear oil every 40K or so. Maybe too frequent, but it seems to get really dirty if I let it go longer.

Sadly, I've done that, mostly when trying to get water-contaminated gear oil out of one of my cars. But yeah, I don't see a problem doing a gear oil change every 40-50K. Certainly a lot less pain than doing DSG fluid.