206 gearbox oil question

[jgra1]

all, slight dilema..


I am changing lower arms for a friend on a 206 2002.. as expected I couldn't really help but lose some gear oil when removing Nearside arm.. hard to say how much, probably a mug full..

she needs to take car home tonight, and I dont seem to have any 75-80 spare at home..
I may be able to grab a bottle later but assuming I dont.. what shall I do?

The gearbox feels quite bad anyway, 3rd on its way and no gears seem that easy to select.. but I dont think it's clutch related (I did clutch and new oil a few months ago)
do I
1/ do nothing
2/ add some normal ?70/90 or whatever it is, have 5l of that at home (probably in conjunction with a level chack, although that hard because car is on a slope)
3/ remove all oil, check how much is there and refill it if its close to 1.8l or so..

any thoughts appreciated
John

[addo]

I'd throw in a tube of whatever PTFE granular paste is sold up your way (here it's G70).

If nothing else, the "Chicken Little" response this suggestion may bring about, will offer a laugh.

Personally I reckon it works. Top up with a guesstimate of the lost amount in the "wrong" oil you already have.

she needs to take car home tonight

Depends whether this suits you. If you need her to go home, then proceed as above. OTOH it may be better if you take your time and use the correct oil; disappointingly, she will have to stay over.

[jgra1]

[Peter.N.]

If she is not going to drive it far it probably won't suffer but you need to top it up as soon as possible.

Peter

[jgra1]

hmm.. so Peter you think leave what is in there, not add the wrong grade to make up difference, and sort out properly asap? she has a 30 mile drive home..
to be honest, the box isnt brilliant anyway, although thats no excuse to break it completely

i wouldnt mind if I knew how much was left in there,.. infact. i will drain and measure as i am curious...

whatever esle I do..

[spider]

Thing is, you cannot rely on it being correctly full before, so its difficult to say. Is it the later one with no level plug ?

If it was urgent I'd use some other transmission oil in a manual box, simply as (unlike an auto I guess) you are slightly better off with the wrong grade of oil (and maybe just have sluggish syncro's) vs running around with a tiny bit of oil (ie far too little) causing things to get a bit warm / wear...

If you did go the "wrong oil" route you'd have to drain refill with the correct stuff when possible though. I just think using say normal EP80 or something would be better than not enough of the correct BV... But that's my opinion.

[jgra1]

thanks Andy..

fairly sure the level will be ok before, as I put it in myself, in Feb or so... in fact, I may have overfilled it slightly it was horrid night and very dark.. I think i am going to leave it alone.. or do i...it's only gonna take a few mins to drain.. and then put back in again..

the other oil I have is nomal tranny oil..

[CitroJim]

the other oil I have is nomal tranny oil..

Surely normal and tranny are mutually exclusive terms

I've seen a 206 MA box filled with Dexron and the end result was not good... It worked much better with 75W/80 in it...

[Peter.N.]

They will operate satisfactoraly with very little oil as long as they are not thrashed, but I would be inclined to put back the oil that you drained out, if you leave it to settle while you are doing the job the rubbish will have gone to the bottom.

Peter

[jgra1]

well.. it lost a bit more when adding that lower arm.. it's an annoying job really.. spring compressors wound up as much as I could, and still an effort to get the damn thing back together
I removed about 1l of oil, made up the difference with normal tranny oil.. and to be honest (when cold) the box felt much better!!

I will change the box if it gets bad..I may change the oil sometime soon...

otherwise the car is not all bad.

[citronut]

well.. it lost a bit more when adding that lower arm.. it's an annoying job really.. spring compressors wound up as much as I could, and still an effort to get the damn thing back together

didnt you have both front wheels off the ground then John,
i have never found i needed to compress the spring whilst fitting a suspension arm

[jgra1]

really? what am I doing wrong Malcolm.. I can only get one wheel off at a time at this place... I managed this time without undoing anything except the lower arm.. so ARB and droplinks etc still attached.. is this the problem,, it's always a pain on a sprung car though..

[citronut]

it's always a pain on a sprung car though..

depends how long your lever/scafold tube is John

[jgra1]

explain

the only tool I could think of to help me doing this on my own, was something to bring the lower arm way down, so I can nudge the strut back over the top.. a long lever with a couple of arms perpedicular, one arm fitting under the suspension arm, one over) if that makes sense.. i.e. an F shape.. but ideal with a curve, as you would hit the ground long before you got the arm low...

my crowbar is one of those useless curly things, not a proper workshop one, and my other bars are a heavy peice of angle, again the wrong shape, and a long ally tube, which is also the wrong shape

[citronut]

explain

the only tool I could think of to help me doing this on my own, was something to bring the lower arm way down, so I can nudge the strut back over the top.. a long lever with a couple of arms perpedicular, one arm fitting under the suspension arm, one over) if that makes sense.. i.e. an F shape.. but ideal with a curve, as you would hit the ground long before you got the arm low...

your TOOL sound just the job John

wish i had a TOOL like yours