You give them a good ticking off then go to thier competitor!

Are you sure the stories aren't about Auto boxes? I've never heard of a manual box failing other than through massive mileages or running dry of oil.
I suppose its best done though, its a long haul down the M5 when you're expecting a problem!
Incidently, how does your Voyager tow? My 3.3 auto isn't brilliant. It wants to change down to 3rd all the time at 60mph & the braking is rubbish as you can't drop a cog to hold it on the engine. MPG is only about 13 too!!

No worries on the advice front, glad to help!

 

Hi Gareth,
Its not too bad at towing, it will do 60 in 5th gear and I do need to change down to 4th on some inclines, its does however get really hot pulling the caravan up hills but since I last towed the caravan I have replaced the turbo intercooler because there was oil leaking from it and when we removed it, there was a big split, so I`m hoping this would have sorted it. Braking is ok but the caravan does have brakes too which helps. I think its does about 22 mpg. By the way the van we pull is 26 foot twin axel.

Thanks

Pete

 

Hi Pete
You're pulling alot more weight than me! I'm only pulling a 17 foot single axle. Sounds like your's performs better on the motorway, as I said mine is unhappy to maintain 60mph in to so i tend to cruise at 55 ish.
I think I need a deisel!
Cheers Gareth

 

I`m going to find it difficult to get to a garage now because I`m in work all week, so do you think the gearbox oil change can probably wait till I get back and I`ll try changing it myself, I dont really want to attempt it just days before I go on hol just incase I mess something up (I had a bad experience over tighening a sump plug on a vw bora, I had to replace the sump in the end)

The gear changes feel fine, no problem what so ever. So the only reason I would be changing the oil is because it must be due soon.

What are your thoughts? or anybody else`s thoughts?

I would be grateful for any advice

Thanks

Pete

 

I wouldn't really sweat about it. The book does say you should replace the fluid in a manual transmission every 20,000 miles if you tow. A couple of thousand miles here or there won't make alot of difference.

As mentioned earlier, the transmission fluid changes are more important on the Auto transmission (although only every 60,000 miles if you tow...or never if you don't tow) as the oil does alot of work. There are clutch and brake bands in the auto transmission which gradually wear and deposit friction material in the oil which gets caught by the filter. Should this filter get clogged and bits start floating around the transmission there is potential to cause tranny failure.

Don't those VW's boras have aluminium sumps?.......hence the overtightening incident. I know a guy who broke the sump on a VW with a trolly jack when changing an engine mount...it was aluminium. You won't have these troubles on the voyager.

 

I'd have a go at removing the level plug & just checking the level. If its low top it up. If the plug won't move with a reasonable amount of force leave it & do it when you return. If I worked in wrexham depot I'd say bring it in , its a bit of a trip to Dolgellau for you!
As I said before oil changes on manual boxes are not so important. Some cars don't have a drain plug these days!
If it feels fine don't worry about it. Its a nice easy run for it to Cornwall, top gear most of the way I'd think.
Which way do you go? M54- M6 - M5 or down the A49 from Shrewsbury?
Cheers Gareth

 

Hi Thanks for the advice,

@booke, yeah I believe the sump was made out of aluminium, before I overtighted the sump plug on the Bora, I did all my own oil changes etc, I kind of lost confidence after screwing up the oil change on the Bora and just took the cars to garages instead of doing it myself, its good to know thats it`s easly done on the Bora and I won`t have this problem on the Chrysler, thanks

Hi Gareth,
Thanks again for the advice, I think I`ll just look at doing it after my hol, hope the weather picks up :-)
thanks for offering to have a look, but Dolgellau is a bit far to pop down, are you a mechanic?
I`ll be going A483, A5, M54, M6, M5, A30

Cheers

Pete :-)

 

Hi Pete.
Yes I 'm a bus mechanic , comes in handy when working on the Voyager!
I'm off for a few days myself today. hoping to get some biking in round Llyn Brenig / Cloclynog foerest. If its not peeing down!
Enjoy your holiday
Gareth

 

A couple of things

1. Find yourself a new set of mechanics. Anyone who cannot find the VERY obvious drain plug is an idiot.

2. Anyone who believes these manual boxes do not fail is living in lala land. They fail both on the old TD and on the newer cars because of incorrect service intervals and oil use.

3. As these gearboxes use 10W-40 engine oil it is imperitive that the oil be replaced every 20K miles in NORMAL driving conditions and much much sooner if towing. Anyone who does not understand why this is clearly does not understand the physics of oil and again should not be calling themselves a mechanic.

You had better check that whomever has changed the oil has put the CORRECT 10W-40 ENGINE oil in your box and NOT REPEAT NOT!!!!! gearbox oil. Once again anyone who tells you that normal SX75-80 GL4 or GL5 is correct for these boxes should not be holding a spanner let alone be calling themselves a mechanic.

Scan through my previous posts I did a long write up on the why's and wherefores of these boxes. The information in the Chrysler owners manual is very very wrong. However that is not surprising when you consider that it is an American car and Americans are used to auto transmissions. It is the service schedule "B" that should be used as the normal service schedule on these boxes NOT service schedule "A"

 

QUOTE "3. As these gearboxes use 10W-40 engine oil it is imperitive that the oil be replaced every 20K miles in NORMAL driving conditions and much much sooner if towing. Anyone who does not understand why this is clearly does not understand the physics of oil and again should not be calling themselves a mechanic."


Easy Tiger, i was speaking from general experience with most [mainly auto] cars, I didn't realise that with engine oil filled manual boxes service intervals were critical.
Lets not get personal.