Hi, Problem with 2nd and 4th gears occasionally grinding when changing under duress. Suspect worn syncros. 1996 1.9td. Is it possible to change gearbox oil for something slightly thicker, to offer more protection, as problem is only intermittent or is this a stupid idea. Thoughts please, Cheers, Ian.
Technical gearbox oil
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Technical gearbox oil
Does sound like worn syncro cones as you say, basically if change gear slowly it's OK , but "racing gear changes" it grates? Due to beating the Syncro clutches trying to match the gear speeds together.
Check this data against your engine Series, it seems to indicate 80W grade which is fairly thick anyway.
This manual is all I could find and is from 1995, but only lists the 1.9 up to 1994?
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cheers bugsymike, less than 2 years ago, i had the 2nd gear syncro changed and my research, at that time, said to use 75w90 full synthetic. the garage were happy with this. now, in order to avoid great expense, i've decided to change the oil to an 80w90 mineral. i'm going to ask the garage to catch the removed oil so that i can use it again if my bodge doesn't work. the old girl is 27 years old so, maybe, a slightly thicker oil will do the trick. failing that, gearbox out and repair. cheers, ian.
Interesting theory here from Guy at Opie Oils that the newer GL5 spec oil can cause crunching by being too slippy for older transmissions that are happier on GL4 spec:
www.fiatforum.com
gear oil spec,s | FIAT Panda (Mk3)
Hi, Can any one on here, tell me the right spec gear box oil for 1,2 petrol panda 07 reg. Reason i ask, been to different outlets and given different spec,s (not glasses)75/80 /75/90 also75/85. Some say semi synthetic some say fully synthetic . Haynes manual total rubbish...Thanks now::bang:
www.fiatforum.com
Hi all, I think Guy at Opie Oils is correct in his assessment. However, the oil I used was Castrol transmax manual 75w90 full synthetic GL4. This was recommended as correct at the time. I, also, believe that being a modern, man made oil it may not be ideal for my old van. As such, I am going to experiment with the older, thicker, mineral 80w90. If it all goes horribly wrong then the gearbox will have to come out and be refurbished but I have a man for that. Let,s hope my theory proves right. Either way I'll let the forum know as I am always grateful for your help and I believe problems solved should be properly reported for the benefit of others. As a support for my theory of older vehicles not, necessarily, liking modern liquids, I have found that, if you add 2 stroke oil to modern diesel in a ratio of 200:l, it helps the engine run smoother and less noisy. Apparently it has something to do with the Sulphur content of modern diesel being far lower than older fuels and the 2 stroke replaces this acting much like lead in older 4 star petrol. All the Best, Ian.
Well I said I would and here it is. Had gearbox oil changed today for 80w90. Gear changes seem a little smoother and, if careful, do not crunch. Slightly better than before and very liveable with. The capacity for my gearbox turned out to be 1.85ltrs so I have quite a bit left over as I supplied the oil having bought 3ltrs. (sod the expense) So there you have it. All the Best, Ian.
Sounds like a good interim measure to give you more time before the cost of a rebuild? I'm always wary of GL5 oils where older gearboxes are concerned, but you're using a GL4 you say, so shouldn't be an issue.
Regarding the subject of putting 2 stroke in diesel fuel to benefit the engine. Amongst other suggestions this one has been around for a long time. The recommendation I've most often seen quoted seems to be to add 3mil per litre of fuel. Add large quantities and you may run into carbon deposit type problems. Probably not a concern on older engines but very much so with common rail and especially if there's any sort of after gear on the engine - for instance exhaust treatment stuff like DPFs and EGRs which could get clogged up. The big problem for older diesels is that they were designed to run on "dirty Diesel" Modern diesel fuel is refined to remove as much stuff like Sulphur as possible and the problem is that sulphur is a good lubricant which reduced the wear on stuff like injector pump elements and injector needles. I owned an old VE engines SEAT which had no DPF (hurrah) and a distributor type injector pump - ie. "old school" - The stories I was hearing at that time about pump and injector wear caused by the, at that time, "new" fuels, concerned me. - Not diesel related I know, but I was very aware of the problems caused by a particular brand of petrol when they went to remove Tetraethyl Lead from their fuels and the avalanche of vehicles with damaged valve seats which started turning up in the shop. Just for purposes of balance that company is now very highly regarded for it's performance fuels and many with high performance vehicles will not fuel up with anything else.
Anyway, getting back to diesels. At that time a good friend was the local Wynns rep. who recommended their Diesel fuel treatment which, amongst other claimed benefits (sorry if I sound sceptical, but I'm not greatly in favour of many additives - but not all) it listed lubrication for fuel system components such as HP pumps and injectors. So I thought I'd give it a try, and he gave me a bottle cheap! It's a product you added at every fill up and seems now to have disappeared from their product line up - has been some years since I was buying it though. I think their nearest product now is this: https://www.halfords.com/motoring/e...rmula-gold-diesel-treatment-500ml-166705.html Some years later - I had that car for about 20 years - and with around 100,000 miles on the clock - she started intermittently with a slight missfire. At that sort of mileage and with me knowing she'd always been "over serviced" the injectors had to be a first stop for diagnosis. They were the old spring type - opened by the fuel pressure from the pump directly (no electronics etc) so I removed them and took them round to our local diesel specialist for checking and overhaul. When I rang him a couple of days later he said the only things he could find was that one of them had a "sticky" needle - probably causing the missfire? - and all were slightly down on "blow off" pressure - only to be expected after that sort of time. He couldn't believe their condition considering their age, they were almost like new. I can only attribute that to the additive's lubricating content? Anyway, he lapped in the "sticky" needle and reset the pressures. When I went to collect them he took £25 off me and said he felt he was robbing me at that because he'd had to do almost nothing to them. As I was picking up the box he'd put them in he said "hang on a minute, hold your hand out" and he dropped 4 copper sealing washers into my hand. What service! This experience convinced me about the anti wear property of the product but my pal moved away and I lost my cheap source for getting the product. In conversation with another "car nut" I was recommended to look at these people's site: https://www.powerenhancer.co.uk/ and there started a very interesting relationship. I've had many interesting conversations about additives etc with them and they do seem to know more than most and give an "honest" opinion as to suitability for your needs. Their website is very interesting if you want to take a look. As a result I started using one of their products: https://www.powerenhancer.co.uk/product/archoil-ar6900-d-max-advanced-diesel-fuel-synthesis/ in the Cordoba and also in my boy's PD engined Fabia. Both cars went on to get well into the 100,000 miles without any fuel system problems.
I'm still of the opinion that many additives are poor value for what they claim to accomplish and especially I would not use an oil additive, either engine or gearbox, and particularly not in the latest generation of engines. However I think some fuel additives may be useful, in particular system cleaners. At this time I buy a fuel additive from them in an attempt to mitigate the inlet fouling problems which, to a greater or lesser extent, afflict all direct injection engines which don't have secondary port injection - so most DI engines. This is the product: https://www.powerenhancer.co.uk/product/archoil-ar6900-p-max-advanced-petrol-synthesis/ I'm not entirely convinced about it's ability to influence inlet fouling but it majors on additional lubrication for the fuel system components (which on DI engines includes very high pressure fuel pumps and injectors which are both expensive and can be difficult to remove so I would rather they last and don't need "fiddled" with) The Ibiza with it's wee EA211 DI engine, which I ran on this stuff, was 8 years old when I traded her against the Scala and she never missed a beat to the day I said good bye to her.
Edit. I don't run a diesel any more but I see they now have another similar product which might be worth consideration: https://www.powerenhancer.co.uk/product/oilsyn-diesel-power-dna-1-litre/
For the petrols there's now this: https://www.powerenhancer.co.uk/product/oilsyn-petrol-power-dna/ which they are telling me has considerable advantages over the stuff I'm using just now. I'm considering changing next time I need to order, but, unsurprisingly, I notice it's more costly?! I buy the one litre size and it lasts for absolutely ages.
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