Refilling Gearbox

[Will Eastman 6]

When recently fitting some new springs to my car something under the car started leaking. After looking on here i assumed this to be gear box oil as the drive-shaft (leftside) came out of the gearbox. Having reassembled the car i tried to refill the gearbox with oil. I couldn't find the top re filler (don't know if my gearbox has one) so i tried refilling it through the level plug in the wheel arch. Except for it seemed to take barley any oil at all (i did try adding 3 times)!! I was surprised at this as so much seemed to come out. Am i filling the gear box in the right way? Could the leak when removing the strut be from something else (although it did smell rather nasty and like gb oil)? Any help would be much appreciated.

[Pugs in Pieces 0]

i thought tht is how they are filled up, so they dont get overfilled, they do hold 2 litres ish of oil.

[BERTMAN 40 1 Cars]

Top of the gearbox, there should be a black plastic cap. Fill in there. Thats how it is on all my BE3 boxes inc 1.6, Mi16, Xsara VTS.

 

They take 2 litres aswell

Edited August 7, 2011 by BERTMAN

[Will Eastman 6]

Is there something else that may have leaked out?? Or could it have just not leak as much as i thought?

 

thanks

[Will Eastman 6]

cant find a black plastic cap, can somebody point it out to me on a picture or a gearbox?

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

It isn't an obvious "cap" as such, if it is a gearbox with lift-up to get reverse, you unscrew the cable for the reverse lock out and fill through there. If it is a reverse behind 5th, you undo a black plastic nut which is in the same place as the reverse cable would go. With the standard airflow meter position and battery etc they are pretty well hidden.

 

Sounds to me like you have dropped some g/box oil as the short shaft has popped out whilst you have had the hub/strut loose and moving about. To be honest this happens often and you have to be careful to do any work on a strut or hub without it happening.

 

If you caught it quickly and shoved the shaft back in you should not need to add the whole 2 litres. Even if you didn't catch it that quick the shaft hole is part way up the gearbox so you cannot empty it all out through the shaft hole anyway.

 

If you really want to make sure it is right, undo the drain plug and dump what is in there. Put the drain plug back, fill 2 litres through the top of the box as described above. Then with the car level undo the level plug on the side and allow any excess to drain to a bucket or whatever. Replace level plug and you have done it.

[Ryan 99]

cant find a black plastic cap, can somebody point it out to me on a picture or a gearbox?

 

[Anthony 1,003]

If you've filled it until it's flowing back out of the level plug then it's right.

 

Unless you pulled the shaft completely out, it's unlikely that you dumped all the oil, and remember that the quantity of oil in a puddle on the floor typically looks a lot more than it actually is - say a coke cans worth of oil will make a massive puddle, but only be 1/6 of the gearbox oil capacity.

[pug_ham 244 3 Cars]

Top of the gearbox, there should be a black plastic cap. Fill in there.

Strictly speaking its a breather cap & not an obvious filler plug, just you can remove it to make filling the gearbox easier.

 

g

[Baz 421]

Use the level plug if you don't know how much oil is already in the box to save you under/over-filling it, jack the car, take the wheel off then lower the jack until the car's roughly back to normal level before-so though.

 

IIRC it's 1.8 litres, to be pedantic!