Snatching gears after box oil change

Post Thu Oct 06, 2011 10:19 am

hi guys, when i was doing my m50 conversion i took the chance to change the gearbox oil as the car had done well over 100k. Since completing the conversion the change into 1st and 2nd has been quite snatchy. By this i mean if you try and do a quick change you feel a slight jolt in the transmission as if the synchro isnt quite doing its job. I was wondering if the change of gearbox oil may be the cause of this? i thought that new thin oil in an old warn gearbox may be the problem. i can't remember off the top of my head which oil i put in but i'll find out and post it up.
cheers

Post Thu Oct 06, 2011 10:59 am

Did you put enough in?

What box are you using?

Post Thu Oct 06, 2011 11:10 am

What colour was the oil that came out, and what did you put in?

Post Sat Oct 08, 2011 8:50 am

The box is the one from the donor car (1991 e34 525i sport manual) it was a long time ago but i'm pretty sure the oil looked nice and clean. I think it was dextron 3 i put in it, i still haven't found the bottle

Post Thu Oct 13, 2011 9:12 pm

Ues it was dextron 3, anyone else experienced this?

Post Fri Oct 14, 2011 9:09 am

I was hoping you were going to say that you had used an E30 gearbox, the oil that was drained out was red, and that you had refilled it was SAE 80.
ATF is sometimes used in E30 boxes to replace the specified SAE80 to alleviate a gear selection problem when cold. If someone, at a later date, decides to do an oil change, and uses the correct oil, the result will be a stiff gear change when cold.
Have you any evidence the gear change was OK when the engine and box were in their previous home?
Have you split the engine from the box at any time, or just transferred the whole assembly?

Post Sat Oct 15, 2011 9:26 pm

the gearchange was definately ok before. yes the engine and box were split during the conversion. hope i can sort it, its an annoying problem