[jesse]

I have a 2001 1.8T with 5spd. It has 55000km. Never changed the fluid. When should I. Also i was told that 5spd not have trans fluid, they have gear oil. Does VW have a synthetic oil i can use for the trans? thank YOU

 

[jesse]

does the synthetic gear oil make any difference? Will shifting feel different? When should it be changed?

 

[jesse]

The trans comes with synthetic oil from the factory. In your cold climate, you might consider using Red Line MTL. It will be less stiff on a cold morning.
The factory fill is a so called lifetime oil. Only question is, whose lifetime?
A lot of people change out the oil every 80,000 km. It will take 2 L of fluid.

Thank you. May you live to be 1000 years!!

 

[jesse]

VW claims that this synthetic gear oil that is used in the manual trannies can last the life of the car. I had mine drained and replaced at about 55,000 miles. The old fluid came out pretty clean and new looking. There are 3 different types of manual tranny fluid that VW uses depending on your tranny type and serial number. The type mine took was $33.00 a liter and it takes 2 full liters to fill it up. VW techs. warned me to only use the correct type so that the seals will last and so that it has the correct friction modifiers to allow the syncronizers to ingage correctly with out excess wear. I firmly beleive that VW doesn't just use 3 fluids for no reason...After I had new fluid put in, it shifted somewhat smoother and felt like new again. The fluid is a 75W90 synthetic gear oil. I do not have the VW part number handy. It took my tech. about twenty minutes to figure out exactly what type mine took because he had to enter the VIN, trans code and trans serial number to find the correct one. He was very surprised at finding out that 3 different fluids were listed and that only one type was the correct one... Do not use any other fluid except VW's recommended type if you want a long lived and smooth shifting tranny. JK

Thank you. May you also live to 100o years