My car has been making a scraping noise when starting from cold ever since I had it serviced at a main dealer about 1 month/1500miles ago. Took it to another main dealer to have it looked at under warranty (I was unhappy with the service I got at the first dealer). It turns out it was low on on gearbox oil by about a litre.
Any thoughts on whether this might have caused lasting damage? I will write to the dealer that did the original service to record my disquiet so that should problems arise in the future a record exists.
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Don't know what the car is - but most gearboxes hold around 2-3 litre - so you would be well down on oil. Box is splash-lubed so a low level can have a significant effect. I would be worried.
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If the scraping noise is now cured with the correct level of oil, then it indicates damage was being done when it was low!
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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I thought that the gearbox oil of front-engined cars was the same as that which lubricates the engine. I didn't realise that gearboxes had their own oil. Admittedly it's yonks since I did any car servicing so I'm probably out of touch with these things.
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L\'escargot.
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I thought that the gearbox oil of front-engined cars was the same as that which lubricates the engine. I didn't realise that gearboxes had their own oil. Admittedly it's yonks since I did any car servicing so I'm probably out of touch with these things.
I thought only the Mini did this? All my FE, FWD cars have had seperate gearbox oil
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Did the servicing dealer change the gearbox oil? If not, then where has the 1l of oil gone?
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I thought only the Mini did this? All my FE FWD cars have had seperate gearbox oil
Some old Peugeots did this as well, but anything post-1990 will have its own gearbox oil - usually much more viscous than engine oil (Gear oil usually 75w80 or similar, engine oil usually 10w40).
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Gear oil has its own viscosity indicators: different scale to engine oil, but virtually the same thickness:) www.experimentalhelo.com/eh_OilViscosity.htm Actual measure is in centistokes: could even be less viscous than your engine oil.
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Well I've learnt something today! Thanks nortones2! :-)
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I hope it is not a renault 6 speed box or vehicles that use this box because if you fill it up it will ruin the box,with a lot of boxes now the oil entry point is not the fill up marker you must only put the amount in that is listed in the spec.
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It's a Subaru Legacy - who makes their boxes?
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Subaru make their own manual 'boxes. The level is not difficult to check. I would get it document that it had not been properly inspected and had run with low oil for 1500 miles.
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It's an auto if that makes a difference.
I've jost posted a letter explaining what has happened and asking for aknowledgement of receipt to the dealer and cc'd it to Subaru HQ.
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Yes, being an auto makes a big difference. A Subaru auto holds about 9-10 litres, so being 1 litre down is much less significant. Also the oil is pumped around in an auto, so there is little chance of oil starvation with only 1 litre down.
The indicated ATF level varies quite a bit with temperature and should be checked using a particular proceedure. Basically you need to drive the car for a lenghty period (at least half-hour). Pull up on level ground and then move the selector slowly through all positions a couple of times. Leave it in P and with engine running carefully withdraw and clean the dipstick. Then dip it for a moment and read the level off the 'HOT' side of the dipstick.
A lot of autos are not checked properly and I see a lot with the wrong level. Some people check them with the engine off (pump not running) which means they end up massively underfilled and the box is damaged.
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Thanks for that info, it puts my mind at rest a lot more. The car was driving OK throughout and the sound has now gone so fingers crossed no damage was done.
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