What oil are you all running in your gearbox?

[Lukey. 381]

As im having issues with shifting on occasion im going to replace my gearbox oil, there seems to be many different oils you can get, varying weights and viscosities, that would all come under being suitable.

So im asking what people are running and how they find it in an effort to try and decide what best to put in mine

cheers

[bungy 2]

http://www.opieoils.co.uk/product-finder/car/oil-filter-service-packs/volkswagen/1997/golf/PETROL/golf/38667/product-finder-2.aspx

[Lukey. 381]

Here is everything i have already found out, going into a bit of detail about the different oils.

yea ive already spoken to tim at opie, and he suggested either 70w80 or 75w90, so that doesnt clear anything up. VWs original spec was for a 75w90 mineral oil which has viscoisities at various temperatures very similar to redline mtl, which is a 70w80 synthetic but much the same characteristics as the mineral vw stuff original to this box (which vw dont make any more) but then this VW reccomendation was changed to a newer much thinner synthetic. G52. Then G60. Then G70. each time becoming a little thinner.

VWs stupid oil spec transfers over to gearbox oil aswell, where if 10w40 VW spec 505.00 is required, anything with a higher VW spec number is suitable too, but we all know that a 5W30 VW spec 507.00 will be far too thin for our engine.

Was this due to the newer oil being better? or just the fact that they phased out the original oil so reccomended this new one as it was the only one they now had? or was it due to the syncros issue with this gearbox and vw trying to prolong their life? Though being twice as thin would this be more about perceived driveability and shifting improvement rather than better protection?

This was my main objective, finding out whether vw changed the oil spec due to better cost for them or better benefit for the box?

ive done quite a bit of asking and searching thus far and have got pretty much no further in narrowing down the options i originally thought about, actually giving more questions and less clear answers.

[legvw 0]

Vw probably has changed the spec of the oil, just because they know that the boxes are getting older.

You've definately done your homework!! Lol!

Just stick 70w80 in it, should be fine.

[Lukey. 381]

yea the more ive thought about it the more ive been swaying toward filling it up with redline mtl, due to being the same voscisities but synthetic, therefore better

i think at this point i could put brown sauce in and it would behave better than it is lol

[jamiehamy 0]

I just changed mine to Castrol SMX-S and it runs amazingly now - changes are much much smoother. 1.8 litres (or once it starts overflowing from the filler hole).

[Lukey. 381]

ive bought some redline mtl, just waiting for the time to swap it now, coming up to oil time too, even though its still quite clean its been over a year so should flush and change it really