sweet thanks

everything is closed back up shifts great, forgot the crush washer. can i just open the drain nut real quick, hold the oil and slip the crush washer back and close everything back up or bad idea?

Is it leaking? I wouldn't fudge with it unless it leaked. Replace it next time

More importantly how do you plan on holding the oil?

Bringing this back up..

I have a few gallons of VP gl100 laying around which is a 75w90 semi-synthetic for diffs and manual trans. would this stuff work in our cars?

Check the oil properties. If it works for the diff, it won't for the transmission, and vise versa. You will fry one or the other if you use the same oil for both, they have different needs.

thanks, so i guess i should only use mt90 for the trans and 75w90 full syn for the diff?

Mazda's OE fluid, Redline, and Eunos are the solid choices that are well proven to be excellent. Not much point in testing other fluids out at the potential cost of expensive hardware.

SInce i want to do this tomorrow and dont see any local stores carrying redline, what else can i use

Going to Redline and look for dealers/sellers. It isn't commonly available. The only "quick access" fluid from that list will be the OEM fluid from your dealer.

The fluids at local auto parts stores are NOT up to the task. Especially Royal Purple. Royal Purple is damaging to our transmissions and diffs.

thanks, i ended up going to the dealer and getting the fluid. The past owner put 30k plus and never changed the fluids and they still looked/smelled good with minimal metal on the magnets.

Just weighing in, that I never use a pump.

A narrow funnel with 2.5' of tubing + gravity works just fine. I have a "flag" of tape on the tube, a couple inches from the end, to keep the tube inserted a known amount.

For filling the trans, you route it from the engine bay, along the firewall and trans tunnel, into the fill hole.

For the diff, you remove a wheel and feed it along the wheel well.

Just keep pouring until you get drips. This works on my 7's and my 8.

I bought a simple hand pump in the bottom out the top and it came with a narrow piece made for the small hole in the auto trans fill hole.$16.00 auto zone.It worked great and simple and little clean up.

Great write up, will be doing this this weekend with royal purple....hoping it can fix some of my transmission issues

Royal purple will NOT fix your issues. Royal Purple doesn't make a transmission fluid of the correct spec for our transmission. Put Royal Purple in and it will feel fantastic for about 1,000 miles, then your syncros will be shredding and you will need a new transmission.

Get the right fluid.

the problems im having now with my transmission pretty much sound like my syncros are shredding or gone as it is. from searching the forum, some posts said royal purple was better, some said redline was. should i just go ahead a return the royal purple and get the redline?

Are you looking at post dates? I haven't seen Royal Purple recommended by anyone for over 5 years? Even then, it was just people that didn't actually know any better.

The forum has 3 fluid recommendations:
- Redline MT90. Proven, good feel, a bit stiff when really cold, easy to get through ordering online or a local race shop
- Mazda's OE fluid. Proven, decent feel, good all around, might not protect enough on track, easy to get from the local dealer
- Eunos. Proven, top notch feeling all around. Harder to get, might have to order in cases. BHR is the only forum vendor that carries it.

With 3 proven choices, 2 of which are easy to get, there isn't any reason to go with anything else.

Motorcraft XT-M5-QS synthetic 75W90 GL4 is easily obtained from your local Ford dealer

Team has had good luck with it

Most synthetic's work well...the only one that seems to have huge issues is the Royal Purple...it seems to be too sticky for the syncro's to work properly

It's had been used successfully by many people here. A little pricey, but the Ford dealership down the street gives me a decent discount, no shipping cost but have to pay local sales tax

I'm just not comfortable buying an oil with a namd pronounced like 'anus' :uhh:

Since the last post here is in february this won't be too egregious of a thread resurrection. XD

Just got my 8 and one of the small issues I've noticed has been a very feint chattering sound while in gear (not all the time, not all gears) but if i turn music and AC all off, i can hear what sounds like transmission chatter when engaged and under load. when clutch is depressed it goes away, and generally is much less noticable in neutral.

edit: I should also mention that I have had a few minor grinding issues as well. usually going into 4th or third. But this is very rare and generally it shifts really nicely. I still can't determine whether it's user error or not. I'm not used to having a clutch grab so quickly. :P

at any rate, I am hoping a good tranny flush will be the solution.
Just wondering if anyone has had similar experiences with this very feint chattering noise?


Also; you don't NEED a pump to fill tranny or diff oil, you can also use a long fitted rubber hose and a funnel. So long as they join together properly and the fluid can flow through on it's own weight, it works just fine. I have used this method :P

Throw out bearing. I'm no expert

Can anyone else offer some advice? i haven't had a chance to flush my tranny yet. I feel bad driving it knowing it's probably never been done in it's 90k lifespan.. it's probably so coagulated and empty in there that it's barely lubricated at all (Q-Q) and I'm hoping when i do, it fixes most of the issues I'm having with the gearbox, but it'd be nice to hear some more opinions from those of you who've owned 8's longer than I ;)

is there a special tool required for the top filler plug on the tranny?

The drain and fill plugs on the transmission take a 23mm or a 24mm. One takes one, one takes the other, I forget which is which.

Socket and ratchet or a wrench in the right size is all you need.

You can fill the Series1 (2004-2008) transmission through the shifter though, it's a lot faster than trying to use the fill plug and a tube or pump. Just make sure it's all drained, replace the drain plug, remove the shifter, use a funnel, and pour in exactly 2 quarts, replace shifter, go driving.

Use Redline MT90, the dealer fluid, or Eunos.

^^ thanks for the verification sir. what's your take on synchromax? I'm by no means a huge fan of Royal Purple products, and I read in the oil threads their Motor Oil is one of the few actually having problems with our cars, but I have heard this product in particular stands apart.

At any rate, any fluid in there should be a huge improvement over where it's at now, based off driving feel alone.

Royal Purple's transmission fluid isn't the correct spec for our car. If you use it, it will feel fantastic for about 2,000 miles and then your syncros will decide that they don't want to remain intact and functioning any more. Lots of ruined transmissions in the 2007-2009 range as people were first replacing their fluid, using Royal Purple, proclaiming it to be great, spreading the disease for other people to follow, and then finally coming back complaining of transmission failure.

Those 3 fluids. Stick to one of those. They are proven, they are fantastic, they are easy to get. What more would you want? Why would you bother trying something else?

^^ good to know. The only reason i bring it up is that it was recommended to me by one of our local rotary mechanics here in WI.. he said some other things in a series of emails that made me not want to take my car in to him as well, so this just confirms my suspicions :P

Just covering all my bases, so to speak.

I usually go with oem fluids anyways. ;)