Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Quick question - 4/4 gearbox and diff oil

Hi - my 2005 reg (2004 built!) 4/4 is due a service. It's the 1.8 blacktop Zetec variant with five speed Ford box (I was told from a Scorpio!) and the standard rear axle. It has very low mileage (10k) and has never had the gearbox or diff oil replaced. I guess it would be a good idea to get this done now. What are the recommended oils? Thanks!

30 - 50,000 miles, if at all, is modern diff oil change interval.

Have you checked there is even a drain plug?

80w90 hypoid is the usual stuff.

Thanks - it's the BTR axle and I think has a drain plug. What is the recommended Gearbox oil?

For wear and general lubrication any 75W/90 GL4 or GL4/GL5 oil will do the job very well in the gearbox.

I believe that Morgan used Morris lubricants for a while that may have changed by now, they have specific advice on their website for the car.

If the gear change can be sticky at times, two oils that meet the 75W/90 specification but are thinner at lower temperatures and may give a slicker gear change are.

Castrol Syntrans Multivehicle 75W/90, a specific GL4 oil so not suitable for the diff.

The other oil that has similar properties is Redline MT90 again a specific gearbox oil to the GL4 specification that should not be used in the diff.

Checking used oil analysis results, it is very sensible to change the oil at most around 30,000 miles as especially diff oil will have at least 200 ppm of steel wear particles in it.

If you are DIYing the job, I would do it after a few years or 20,000 miles.

I use Morris Lodexol 80w/140 in the axle (LSD)

https://www.morrislubricants.co.uk/products/auto/gear-transmission-oils/lodexol-xfs-80w-140.html

And 75w/90 in the MX5 gearbox.

https://www.morrislubricants.co.uk/products/auto/gear-transmission-oils/lodexol-fs-75w-90.html

http://www.talkmorgan.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/232045/2

The MX5 gearbox was from lateish 2011. The car is 2005, therefore a Ford gearbox.

Not really an issue.

Yes, Ford box. Do you mean I shouldn't bother to change the oils at this stage? (14 years old, 10k miles)

I think Ford subscribe to the filled for life theory. I prefer to change oils reasonably regularly. Not absolutely necessary but what comes out is always discoloured.

I'm a fan of oil changes myself but often wonder if i should wean myself off the habit. Our daily drivers don't get such attention, we've had our VW EOS for over 10 years its never had a transmiision oil level check let alone an oil change. We prev iously ran a mk4 golf for 12 years with same attention to transmission lubrication!
Just for info my old caterham has an Ital axle with no drain plug and a 4 speed escort sport gearbox.....with no drain plug. However the gearbox needed a rebuild at 40k and the diff nose bearing needed replacing at 50k, i think that may have been down to spirited driving and quality of materials used in the British motor industry in those days rather than lack of oil changes.

If we're talking about the Ford T-9 box here, the only effective way to change the oil is to remove the transmission from the car as there's no drain plug. (Removing the transmission requires removing the engine first.) In theory, you could suck the oil out with a vacuum pump and tube through the inlet, but I've never had much luck doing that. The tube won't get to the bottom of the case before it gets hung up on the internals. But, as others have pointed out, it's all unnecessary so long as the correct (synthetic) oil was used in the first place. These transmissions were designed not to require oil changes.

Warren