Gearbox oil, should I be worried? C5 2.2 HDi

[Millerboy79]

Hello,
I changed my drivers side driveshaft at the weekend, I'm just a little concerned that when I pulled the driveshaft out I didn't lose a drop of gearbox oil! Not even a trickle. I did mean to check the level but the sleet kind of put me off!!! Is it normal to lose no oil? The box isn't notchy, everything selects as it should! But no oil loss!
Cheers Todd

[CitroJim]

It's not normal to loose no oil when swapping a driveshaft in a manual box but perfectly normal if it's an automatic 'box. They run 'dry splines' and have a different sealing arrangement to a manual box that run wet driveshaft splines.

In my experience manual boxes can survive for ages and ages on a very little oil with no symptom but will fail rather badly when under a heavy load, such as towing. I had a case recently where a Pug 306 TD wrecked it's gearbox spectacularly whilst towing another car over a distance of 90 miles. Until then it had been fine for months and months despite being almost dry.

If yours is a manual 'box then drain what's left in there as it will not be good and refill with the specified amount of new oil of the correct grade...

[jgra1]

yep it's a manual

[CitroJim]

yep it's a manual

Then it's empty

If so the reason will almost certainly be a failed driveshaft oil seal. They're cheap and easy to replace and they all use the same ones, MA, BE and ML...

[RichardW]

Not forgetting that LH and RH seals are different....

[citronut]

i spoz if you had the car upside down whilst swapping the driveshaft it wouldnt loose any oil

regards malcolm

[CitroJim]

i spoz if you had the car upside down whilst swapping the driveshaft it wouldnt loose any oil

regards malcolm

Yes it would, it would run out of the breather

[Millerboy79]

I've decided I must have a peculiar car. I drained the oil out of the box, all 1.8 litres of it! And put the same amount back in. It didn't lose any when I changed the driveshaft yet it had the right amount in.

[CitroJim]

Well There's bizarre! Can't explain that one unless you changed the driveshaft whilst parked nose-down on a steep hill

[Millerboy79]

I thought it strange! And it was up at the front drivers side when I changed it. The whole bloody thing is odd!!!!