I have Now completed the first (40,000 mile) oil change on my 6 speed dsg box

I will attach some pictures and information that may help others tempted to do the same though I have seen a recent post that stated they have been quoted £175 at a garage to do it so at that price it may not be worthwhile.

For me there was little choice as Blade group will never get their hands on a vehicle of mine ever again.

 

I purchased a "  Sealey VS70095 Transmission Oil Filling System 3ltr instead of the vag6262 tool. " (use text between quotes to search) which cost me £69.49 (can be done cheaper without a pump but its slower)

I purchased "

1 x

Genuine VW DSG Gearbox Oil And Filter Kit (G052182A2, 02E305051C, N910845) from "Lancaster volkswagon" at a cost of £111.92   I already own Vcds (£270)   So without going any further - if you can get it done for £175 then do it as even now I have the required equipment It will still cost £112 and a couple of hours of my precious snoozing time in another 40,000 miles time. Still interested...here we go then. I couldn't find an online video of a skoda superb dsg oil change but I did find a very good video of a vw model from a site covering their turbo diesel ( or was it "myturbodiesel" wink wink) search for this "How to change and drain the DSG transmission fluid in your VW w/ VAG6262" and select videos.   The car needs to be level but there seems no where to measure the levelness of the superb so I measured the drive level and made blocks of wood to sit under three of the wheels. The oil would drain easier if warm but unless its the depths of winter I wouldn't worry about this too much, the oil is not very viscous.   Step 1. jack one side of the car up slightly so that you can reach the furthest and middle of three TX45 screw that holds the engine drip tray up, remove those three tx45's and 8 TX20 (torx size 20) around the edge. (put the 11 screws in the tray and put it somewhere where you can trip over it and send the screws flying)   Step 2 Identify the DSG box oil drain plug and slightly loosen it. do not remove it yet You need a size 14mm hex drive and a long ratchet or torque driver I have rung it here in green for you. (viewed from car front)     Step 3. Lower the car, lift the bonnet and disconnect the battery . 2 @10mm   Pull the battery fleece off (if fitted) Undo the battery retaining clamp. 1@13mm and remove the battery ( the battery tray has lips at the nearside edge so if leaning over the wing, lift and push away from you to disengage.   Step 4 Remove the electrical connector from the air cleaner pipe and the smaller rubber pipe. The connector has a small grey peg at the side of it, pull this peg up slightly and then hold it against the connector as you pull it up.     Step 5 remove the air inlet pipe from the air cleaner assembly     Remove the top of the air filter box and take out the air filter.     You now need to remove the lower part of the air filter housing, it is held down by two rubber push on nipples ( highlighted yellow on the 2nd picture below) and one TX30 screw (coloured green 1st pic below) and the air pipes. There is also a ribbed drain tube that goes down through the engine bay to the void in front of the wheel. it is connected to nothing so just pull it up and free. It will make sense when you do it yourself but it requires a yank upwards to lift the filter housing off the nipples and then twisting with the right hand side up in the air so that you can release the left hand U shaped tube.   Step 6 Remove the battery tray, it has two 10mm bolts situated under where the battery would be (green and labelled here) and a 13mm bolt above the right hand rubber nipple for the air filter assy.  In the picture above you can see the rust marks where this bolt was (just below the red wires)         You can now see and easily get to the Dsg filter...It has a 24mm nut shape in the top of it and it is a one piece dome of plastic that is torqued  up to 23NM. (My torque wrench starts at 48NM) As its unlikely you will have a torque wrench capable of measuring such a low value it would be wise to mark the top at say 6 o'clock and count the revolutions as you undo it. It is sealed with an O'ring so does not want to be overtightened.     Clean around the filter case and then unscrew the cap, very little oil will spill if any at all. You will now see the filter which can be removed by pulling up, have a suitable container nearby to put it in as it is full of old oil. Put the new O'ring on to the cover, smear some oil around it and on the rubber gasket of the new filter and re fit both. Step 7 Re fit all the parts you have just removed apart from the engine tray and sump plug. Spend a moment looking down at the dsg filter cover and come to the conclusion that it should be possible (next time) to replace the filter without removing all this stuff, depends how strong your grip is but I will try that next time.     Step 8 Drain and Fill By now the car has resettled after having been jacked up and as it is now back down you have limited room to work underneath, this is why you loosened the drain plug as it is too difficult to do later. Get a suitable container to drain the old oil into, I used an old 15kg tile adhesive bucket with an internal diameter of 280mm cut down to 130mm (the old oil filled to a height of 100mm) Put the container under the drain plug and ....blah blah blah Some oil will come out but not that much, not until you get your 8mm hex drive and undo the snorkel....let it drain.. then replace the snorkel.   The VAG kit and the sealey have the correct size adapter to screw into the Dsg box and the sealey has a quick fit push connector and isolating valve so you waste less oil when passing the filling tube down through the engine. The sealey says it holds 3 litres, it either doesn't or my new bottles of oil were overfilled, not that important so just fill it up and pump it in. you need to keep adding oil until it spills back out through the snorkel ( you did re fit the snorkel didn't you?!) check for overspill at approx. 4.5 litres pumped in. Once it starts trickling back out you can connect the Vcds and start the car, as the video shows -pass through each selector position pausing for a few seconds and then back to park. as the oil warms it will expand and you will see more draining out , on Vcds select  control modules, dsg automatic transmission and then measuring blocks and click the top left up arrow to get to block 19 , here you will see the dsg oil temp and when that reaches 35c you can turn off the engine andput the sump plug back in, torque up to 45nm Re fit engine tray and rejoice (hide those three extra bolts leftover...bound to be ok without them huh?)

Brilliant work, thanks for taking the time!

Fantastic Post!  Well Done.

No mention or pic of where this "snorkel" is.

 

Skoda fixed price maintenance shows this work costs £179 (max) at a participating dealer so hardly worth the effort imo, but many thanks for the great post.

The snorkel is a tube of black plastic that is inserted into the drain hole before the sump plug is screwed on.

The snorkel screws in (not tight!) and seals at the bottom but is hollow with an opening at the top which allows the surplus oil to drain back out achieving the correct fill level.

without the snorkel the gearbox would just empty as soon as you removed the sump plug.

 

On 2017-11-09 at 15:26, xman said:

No mention or pic of where this "snorkel" is.

 

Skoda fixed price maintenance shows this work costs £179 (max) at a participating dealer so hardly worth the effort imo, but many thanks for the great post.

Consider yourself lucky..

In sweden DSG service costs around £300-350..

 

Thanks for the thread TS!

Doing my oil change today so it will be very helpful.

Also consider yourself lucky If blade are not your nearest dealer.

They will never get their hands near a car of mine again.

Guys!! Dont switch off the engine before replacing the sump plug!!! The DSG pump reticulates some oil, lowering the level when the engine is running. If you switch off the enging before putting in the sump plug, more oil will spill over the plastic snorkel and you will end up underfilled. That is why the Skoda service manual says check oil level at correct temp WITH THE ENGINE IDLING, and why so many mechanics think DSG boxes are often over filled at factory - because so much oil pours out over the snorkel when you first pull the sump plug. Its has not been overfilled, its because we pull the sump plug with the engine off. So excellent post Superb dreams, but first sump plug, then turn off engine. At least that is for the mk3 Octavia. Im sure yours will be the same.

I just been told that oil in dsg in Octavia 1.6 did 2014 is for life and I don't have to be worry about it.  

Just got 39k on the clock. So should I believe??? 

How can a wet 6 sped dsg box in one car not need an oil change and yet does on every other car.

Were you told this by a gearbox seller?

 

Probably because it's a dry 7-speed box... As per all the 1.6D Octavias I've driven.

49 minutes ago, Alfashark said:

Probably because it's a dry 7-speed box... As per all the 1.6D Octavias I've driven.

How can I check it to make sure ? 

How many gears has it got? If it has 7, you're good.  If you have 6, it'll need an oil change.

Edited 6 April, 20188 yr by Alfashark

1 hour ago, Alfashark said:

How many gears has it got? If it has 7, you're good.  If you have 6, it'll need an oil change.

7 gears, so I have a dyr geat box?

8 hours ago, Pabloski79 said:

7 gears, so I have a dyr geat box?

 

Correct.

Why change it yourself and loose warranty? Gearbox fails can be very pricey.

?

If you have only a 2 year Warranty or even a 3 year Warranty from the manufacturer then what is this Warranty you speak of losing?

Old thread, but I have a question: That thing with the hose connected to it, right next to the filter, is that the oil cooler for the transmission?

Thank-you for such a comprehensive guide; very much appreciated. My only concern about doing the job is that I don’t own a OBD Diagnostic device. Is it unwise to do the job without a VCDS? Or, perhaps more importantly, what might go wrong if I don’t use VCDS? I would appreciate your opinion. 

7 minutes ago, KevinGill said:

Thank-you for such a comprehensive guide; very much appreciated. My only concern about doing the job is that I don’t own a OBD Diagnostic device. Is it unwise to do the job without a VCDS? Or, perhaps more importantly, what might go wrong if I don’t use VCDS? I would appreciate your opinion. 

 

Quite likely the oil level won't be correct.

Thank-you🤞

31 minutes ago, KevinGill said:

Thank-you for such a comprehensive guide; very much appreciated. My only concern about doing the job is that I don’t own a OBD Diagnostic device. Is it unwise to do the job without a VCDS? Or, perhaps more importantly, what might go wrong if I don’t use VCDS? I would appreciate your opinion. 

Liquids (and solids) like oil expand with temperature.

the correct oil level is determined by it spilling over the snorkel, if the oil was too cold there would be too much and if it was too hot there would not be enough .

how much variance this would be in real life I cant say and I suspect not a great deal.

Bearing in mind the oil has to be changed with such frequency (40,000m)  and the cost of having it done at a dealer if you are even prepared to let them loose on your car- it is a no brainer to buy yourself a diagnostic tool, the savings take less than two changes plus you get the ability to reset and change so much.

 

What you are saying makes sense to me. Ill change the oil after the motor has warmed up to normal operating temperature. The temperature in Brisbane at the moment is ~20 degrees Celcius so I'm not expecting too many surprises. 50ml + or - should not be a deal-breaker; regardless, I'm going to have a crack at it. Just buying the oil and the filter on-line at the moment. Nulon seems to be offering a pretty attractive deal via Ebay: epid=28031249143&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&hash=item23b98f695f:g:q~YAAOSw3TFcwG8Xhttps://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Nulon-EZY-SQUEEZE-Full-Synthetic-Multi-Vehicle-DSG-DCT-Transmission-Fluid-NDSG-1/153437038943?

 

Just changed the oil and filter on my Alhambra  - looks very similar to the Superb. If you use the ‘special’ tool for the filter (basically a cranked offset 24mm socket) - these are widely available on EBay and other sites - there is no need to remove the battery or air cleaner. Once you have the car raised and level, this job is little more than an engine oil and filter change. The longest part of the job for me was warming the oil to 35 degC!

Did this today on my car. Thank you for an excellent guide!

 

I used this Meyle filter kit, which was a fair bit cheaper than the VW branded kit and seemed high quality (made in Germany etc.).

 

The air filter is a little larger on the (petrol) 280 and integrates into the front grille - but it's quite easy to remove with a few T25 TORX. Also, there's no need to remove the under tray, because the gearbox drain plug is uncovered anyway.

 

Also, I wouldn't bother with the pressurised tool (to fill from below), you can fill from the top (albeit slowly - 1 litre every few minutes) for pennies. I would only recommend filling from below if you have a hoist and need to get the job done in a rush (i.e. if you're a professional). I bought this funnel set for £5.99 from eBay and it fitted exactly into the tube within the filter housing.

 

I considered buying the 24mm special tool (to avoid removing the battery and airbox), but removing the airbox and battery tray gives much better access and avoids spillage. If I was doing this regularly (i.e. not every 40,000 miles) then it would be a no-brainer. I found it easiest to take out the battery tray and airbox base as one unit as they didn't want to come apart and you can get them out of the way fairly easily (although you do have to unclip 3 wires and push them out of the way).

 

All in all it took me about 5 hours, which for an amateur mechanic isn't too bad. 😀

 

 

 

Edited 17 May, 20206 yr by ChrisCh
Added link to DSG oil kit