What oil to use for manual gboxes ?

[borkanel]

Hi all,
I have the so common problem of not being able to shift into 1st unless I use force. I have to firstly go into 2nd and then it goes into 1st without any problems.
However, I recently took a 300km trip into the mountains, half of the trip was on the highway and the other half was mainly curves and serpentines and I noticed that I was able to shift into 1st from standing still. I am thinking that all the heat from the engine increased the oil temp in the gearbox and thus my problem disappeared....and I have to admit that the problem is temperature related although there is a little play in the gear selection mechanism.
I went under the car to check for the ''magic sticker'' that tells you what oil to use but I couldn't find it...no trace of this bloody sticker. How can I find out what type of oil to use for my gearbox?
Can anyone shed some light on this one as I saw conflicting information over the internet.
The car is a manual 04/1995 316ti.
Any guidance is appreciated.

[teen ti]

I think I used something synchromesh on mine and it worked out well

[1996 328ti]

I once used BG SyncroShift II.
Worked real well. Just expensive.

[zoner]

I use Red Line D4 ATF in my manual gearbox w/o any problems. Shifts like butter.

I also hear that Royal Purple Synchromax is a good gear oil (gearbox) to use in our cars.

If in doubt, just use factory BMW gearbox oil- I hear those guys know a thing or two about what should be run in the gearbox they designed and built the gearboxes they chose to use in their vehicles.

[chrisbec]

^^^ +1 on the Red Line ATF, that stuff is top shelf and works excellent. I put this in my transmission 7 years ago, put a bunch of miles on my car with this oil in my transmission and absolutely no issues.

[spidertri]

Stay away from royal purple, that stuff is garbage.

Redline, amsoil, stock oil, are all good choices.

[zoner]

Originally Posted by spidertri

Stay away from royal purple, that stuff is garbage.

Redline, amsoil, stock oil, are all good choices.

So noted on the RP- never used it myself, just know a couple people who do and seem to like it. Then again, with the exception of Mobil 1, I tend to stay away from lubricants that can be found at places like Auto Zone, Pep Boys, O'Reilly's, etc. (I know RP is sold in at least a couple of those places).

[pdxmotorhead]

I see this pop up a lot, I've used royal purple for years in race engines and it works great... Like many oils, some don't mix well, and from what I've seen thats the root of the negative comments, like mixing Penzoil standard with castrol standard, BAD mojo..

Pick a quality oil and stick with it... Switching around is the most common problem with oils... The various bases and additve packages are complex and can be broken down if the wrong ones come together...

I heard from everybody for years that Penzoil was garbage.. And there were all kinds of things attributed to it.. My 1985 toyota came with Penzoil brand and and I decided to test the theory so I ran ONLY Penzoil for 250K miles, When I sold it the leak-down numbers were like brand new. Changed the oil pretty regularly at 4000 miles to 4500 miles.

Cheers
Dave



Dave

[spidertri]

I put royal purple in my trans and ran it for 20k miles. When it came out it was the consistency of water and smelled like it had been burned.

I don't know how many miles were on the oil I drained out before the RP but it wasn't burned smelling and still seemed to have a good viscosity to it.

After I took the RP out I went to amsoil and have since put 20k on that and refilled it again with more amsoil. The 20k mile old stuff did not smell burned, came out almost new looking, and had the original consistency. Shifting is very smooth with the amsoil in there.

From my experience, I can't recommend royal purple to people. I didn't even autox when I had the RP in the trans, it was all daily driver miles.

[pdxmotorhead]

Which royal purple viscosity did you use?

I'm a big red-line fan, used it for years, just went withthe royal purple to get a specific viscosity in a offroad vehicle once...

Dave

[spidertri]

I used the RP SynchroMax in the transmission.

[pdxmotorhead]

HMM. interesting. Do you have the Getrag or ZF box? Because I seem to recall the viscosity spec being very different between them... Purely academic interest..

THanks
Dave

[spidertri]

Getrag. It has the MTL sticker on the side of the trans.

I currently have the 5w-30 Amsoil MTF in there.

[pdxmotorhead]

Its interesting because I've owned a couple different vehicles with Getrag tranny's and I think they are REALLY sensitive to viscosity. RP tends to run heavy.. Wonder if it was not lubricating sufficiently.. ? I have Redline in mine its the most available in my area...

Cheers.
Dave

[borkanel]

I replaced the oil with Total ATF and the mountings ( http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...18&hg=23&fg=10 ) as well and the gear lever now sits above then it used to be with a few mm maybe 1cm ... and the shifting has improved. I now believe the problem to be the the linkage...there's a play ( http://www.pelicanparts.com/bmw/tech...t_Bushings.htm ). However, someone who never drove a mint condition E36 cannot tell if this is the way it should shift or not.