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Gearbox oil & noisy syncro

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Gearbox oil & noisy syncro

Hi

I read in the Classic Car Weekly GTI feature from a couple of years ago that the classic 'noisy/worn 1st or 2nd gear syncro when cold' can be alleviated by changing the gearbox oil from recommended 80w/90 to 75w/90. Presumably the oil is a bit thinner and therefore takes less time to heat up. Has anyone tried this or have an opinion on this advice?

Cheers

1981 1600 GTI (coming to a road near you soon…)

1983 1100 C

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I have refilled with fully synthetic gear oil on one of my earlier Mk1s. It certainly overcame any 2nd gear crunch I had and can thoroughly recommend it!

You will need a large (17mm I think) allen male socket to undo the drain/fill plugs. To fill go in under the wheel arch with a piece of clean flexible tubing. Fill to overflow, drive it a bit, cool down and then fill to overflow again.

Cheers
Rajan

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Rajan - can I ask which synth oil you used in the gearbox? Would one of the Redline products fir the bill?

Cheers,

Chris

ex '83 Mk1 Golf GTi Campaign owner and missing it already!

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I can't remember which product it was Chris, was many moons back with my old Campaign. I think most low viscosity synthetic oils should be OK though.

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Thanks mate - I'll check the specs on the Redline fully synth - used it in the box and diff on my MX-5 and it really improved the shift, especially when cold.

Chris

ex '83 Mk1 Golf GTi Campaign owner and missing it already!
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