manual transmission fluid change
 

I've never changed transmission fluid before, but have heard that for an automatic transmission it can be a pain since most of the fluid won't drain out. I have a manual transmission - does it drain more easily or does it also need to be flushed?

I'm thinking of changing to Redline MTL since everyone seems to be raving about it.

Cheers,

Eric

Redline is as good a fluid as any to go with - Better than most.

Manuals drain completely - The reason you can't drain an automatic completely is that more than half of the fluid is in the torque converter.

Don

At what interval is the manual transmission oil supposed to be changed? The owner's manual/maintenence schedule lists everything else except the protege.

Thanks - MT90 indeed seems to be the one that matches the spec in the manual. I was thrown off by another post somewhere saying to use MTL and didn't check out the actual specs ...

Cheers,

Eric

Well, on my other Mazda (which we won't go into, as it's just a wimpy girlie car) the book calls for manual trans (and differential) oil changes every 30K.

That would probably be a good schedule to use. Dumping the stock stuff right now and going to Redline is probably still a good idea - It's much better than the OEM lubricant.

Don

Yeah My old Probe GT, which had a Mazda gearbox and engine called for a manual transaxle oil change every 30,000 miles. I don't know how similar they are interanlly, but I know the Probe's took 75W90, just like ours.

23mm socket needed...
 

I know the thead is old, but in case anyone does a search, make sure you have a 23mm socket to remove drain and fill plugs on the tranny. Remove the fill first, to make sure you get it off before draining. And, due to fill location, you will probably need a fluid pump to fill. Capacity (in the manual) is about 3 US quarts. I just did the Redline 75W090 oil.

We have oil change interval for mt and it's 90k km. That's in the maintenance program.

That´s a pretty long time (a lot of kms). Over here it´s 50,000 km (about 30,000 miles) for all fluid changes (brake, transmission, etc.)

we also have 15t km motor oil change interval and 2 years for brake/coolant fluids.

You could try some motul product too. I met a guy at a motorcycle super show that raced MP3's who was also a Motul rep. He claimed he used motylgear in his gearbox with good results.

motul gearbox lubes
Stocker.

15,000 km for oil changes!! That´s over 9,000 miles!! :eek:

Most people on this board change the oil every 3,000 miles (or 5,000 km), that includes me. 5,000 miles is the most I have waited... and I was worried that it was too long.

Even my manual recommends 10,000km under light driving conditions, and more frequent if you haul ass all the time.

And many other cars have 20,000 km interval for oil change (even the Mazda 6) ;) We also drive under pretty hard conditions, just had 3 weeks -25C to -30C. Local Mazda dealer recommends Mobil1 RF 5W-50, do you have that oil (it has very large scale which isn't only a good thing). Practically it's wise to use 0W or 5W oils here, 10W get much to thick when it's cold enough. Personally I change oils every 10,000km and it's ofter enough, proved by thousands of old cars in Finland, driven much over 300,000km without opening the engine. Here the average age of a car is something like 11 years :( because cars are so damn cheap, new P5 is only 25,000USD

does it have to be special manual tranmission gear oil or
does any synthetic 75w90 work?

I have just had the transmission oil changed at 27k Miles and the gear change is terrible when the box is cold.
They say everythings fine we have put the correct stuff in, so I have just ordered some redline MT90 which I think is the correct viscosityto keep the warranty happy. It's going in on friday so I will let you know if it improves things.