Xantia gear oil colour

IanR · Post by **IanR** » 16 Jul 2005, 00:48

Just changed the transmission oil in my Xantia 1.8 16v at 60,000m and was rather alarmed at how dark in colour and dirty-looking it was. Is it possible that Citroen put molybdenum or other additives in this oil, I just wondered? If so that might explain the colour.

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » 16 Jul 2005, 01:02

Something like Slick can produce excellent results in transmissions apparently and it may be that a previous owner has used it. I'm not aware that Citroen do.
Jeremy

AndersDK · Post by **AndersDK** » 16 Jul 2005, 01:03

Some red, some blue, some green, mostly dark in colour.
Why change it ? Transmission oils are never really changed - unless other service jobs forces you to do it - like replacing diff/axle seals.

IanR · Post by **IanR** » 16 Jul 2005, 17:36

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by jeremy</i>

Something like Slick can produce excellent results in transmissions apparently and it may be that a previous owner has used it. I'm not aware that Citroen do. Jeremy<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
That thought crossed my mind, although I'm surprised to hear it does any good! If it does, why don't the oil manufacturers use the same compounds?
Changed it for a standard synthetic gear-oil anyway.

alan s · Post by **alan s** » 16 Jul 2005, 18:51

If it's an auto then someone has put Dexron 111 in it and it's cooking the internal clutches out of it.
I've been tied up a lot lately following a service on a BX auto that had what looked like watery molasses in the transmission that turned out to be Dex3. The following investigations revealed why Aussie Citroen autos burn out at around 120K klms (70,000 miles) with monotonous regularity; I won't go into all the gory details, but it has come to light that they have been consistently using Dex3 in the ones with the short lifespan and the gearbox manufacturers warn against using it but it seems it's been done on a false premise that Dex3 is an upgraded version of Dex2 which it isn't, it's an entirely different mix and causes this phenomena.
If it's a manual box, then it is possible that an additive may be in there as even the greatest sceptics on engine additives all seem to recommend the gearbox ones (myself included). It seems the way of the World with cars, after all, when Valeo start telling people to pour a bottle of stop leak in the system when you use one of their heater matrix, I suppose an additive in the gearbox isn't all that hard to believe.[:0]
Alan S

Stempy · Post by **Stempy** » 16 Jul 2005, 22:06

I recently changed the oil in my autobox and it made a huge difference, it runs so much smoother now and it has cured the intermittent stutter that it had been suffering from. These boxes are supposed to be sealed for life. I don't know what Citroens definition of life is though. Mine just reached 78,000 miles, but I don't suppose the gearbox has ever been touched in that time as it had been dealer serviced until I got it. Made sure I used the proper Esso oil too, even though it was £40.