o/t gearbox with no oil
Turbo Mini Forums

A friend at work had her merc a-class serviced 4 weeks ago, then the gearbox failed and the RAC said it sounded like there was no oil in it.

The's had the gearbox replaced at huge expense, but there's some question as to whether the garage that serviced the car drained the gearbox oil and didn't refill it. She's not been able to find out exactly what caused the failure, and she suspects the garage that did the repair is a 'mate' of the garage that did the service.

Not much she can do now as there's no way to prove anything, but I am curious - is it possible for a gearbox to do 30 miles a day for 4 weeks with little or no oil in it?

Someone im ashamed to know used to drive his 'scort around without any oil for quite a while, well so he says anyway!

TBH it didn't sound to good at all, and he was enough of a tool to do it, whether it actually had no oil is another matter!

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1/4mile in 13.2sec @ 111 terminal on 15psi

I drove an old montego around for a while with no oil in the box- went fine for a week or so before it locked up on me - should have taken more notice of the oil trail!

I've never changed the gearbox oil in my mini, how do I do it?

Team Racing

We actually got that question on the Norwegian mini board a few weeks ago:)

Its quite easy Jim. Theres a grease nipple on the drivers side of the gearbox, but make sure you disconnect the battery first. :)

Edited by Jason G on 1st Oct, 2007.

I though that you separated the engine/box, tipped the oil out, filled it back up and re-assembled.

Or is there an easier way?

In the 13's at last!.. Just

Damn it...never thought of doing that. Is there a special tool doing it that way???

Edited by Jason G on 1st Oct, 2007.

I did 6k miles in a Vaux Viva... the output seal was shot and so it lost nearly all the oil you put in within the 1st 5 miles!!

It wined like hell but never let go!

I always assumed that because it didnt empty out completely and it was dealing with fuck all power that it just about managed on very very low oil.

Alex

AlexF

Had a fiat uno....lasted about 5 hours without oil. Typical Italian gearbox though!

werent the uno gearboxes also lubricated by the engine oil or am i thinking of the Pandar F.I.R.E. engine?? or am i thinking that it was the inner CV joints that were oil filled from the gearbox so when the split they drop the oil?

Edited by Sprocket on 1st Oct, 2007.

in my opinion neil its possible and sound about right

its hard to prove the case though,

when confronted they will head straight for the skirting boards like blackclocks

manual or automatic if its manual then inho it is possible, ive recently witnessed a yaris gearbox which covered an unbelievable 6000 miles with out gearbox oil in, maybe it was only used for short journeys.

was gear oil due for change on the schedule and was they charged for any oil?

is it to late for them to ask for the old gearbox back for a post mortum?

and of course it could just be a coincidence as this can also happen, and of course IF it does the first thing customer says is "well it was ok before you serviced it"

also if it was bearing faliure then these tend to be noisey long before they break so garage should have road tested it and heard them and advised.

no longer a series, but still 1.3 turbo.

if they havent invoiced you for gearbox oil, then id say you have a strong argument.

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

If you remove the gears I guess it would be quite obvious if it hasn't been run without oil?

Thanks for the advice.

They took her (manual) gearbox in exchange so I don't think it can be inspected now, and I can't remember if she said she'd been charged for gearbox oil (she talks alot and I sometimes switch off lol) but it's a good point and I will find out :)

Some years ago I heard a tale about an oil chane a guy had done on a Renault.
The engine and gearbox drain plugs were very close together.
He removed the gearbox plug thinking it was the sump plug, drained the oil, refitted the drain plug, then poured 5lts. of oil in the engine.
Set off on a run and wondered why the engine smoked and the gearbox was noisey.
Regards
Dave

Edited by theoneeyedlizard on 2nd Oct, 2007.

In the 13's at last!.. Just

My friend and I went to collect his dad's AMG Merc thing V8 superchargered job.

On the way home it got a proper test drive if you know what I mean.

We caught up with a gt3 porsche on the way back so you can guess what happen next. Doing Big Mph's overtaking on the wrong side of the road the Merc decided to drop out of gear and I mean no gear at all.

Well the porsche near went into the boot and we nearly had a head on to. Bloody scary...! Plus £200.000 quid’s worth of cars nearly totalled.

Anyway we survived and so did the porsche guy.

The Merc at this point although in one piece still would not drive. So a phone call to Merc and out they came to collect the car. Once back at the dealers and after further inspection they found that in the service they just done on the car and charged for. That some how they had not filled the gear box up to the adequate level with oil.!

Resulting in the Merc computer deciding game over, and no more fun today. If only it could see it might have changed its mind.

So Merc think oil is important although they sometimes forget to put it in

Si

I drill holes in everything..!

On 2nd of Oct, 2007 at 09:23pm Si P said:
My friend and I went to collect his dad's AMG Merc thing V8 superchargered job.

On the way home it got a proper test drive if you know what I mean.

We caught up with a gt3 porsche on the way back so you can guess what happen next. Doing Big Mph's overtaking on the wrong side of the road the Merc decided to drop out of gear and I mean no gear at all.

Well the porsche near went into the boot and we nearly had a head on to. Bloody scary...! Plus £200.000 quid’s worth of cars nearly totalled.

Anyway we survived and so did the porsche guy.

The Merc at this point although in one piece still would not drive. So a phone call to Merc and out they came to collect the car. Once back at the dealers and after further inspection they found that in the service they just done on the car and charged for. That some how they had not filled the gear box up to the adequate level with oil.!

Resulting in the Merc computer deciding game over, and no more fun today. If only it could see it might have changed its mind.

So Merc think oil is important although they sometimes forget to put it in

Si

turbo 16v k-series 11.9@118.9 :)

Denis O'Brien.