Hi all. All set to change the gearbox oil on my 2002 1.9SDI & hit a problem pretty quickly! Where is the drain plug? I can see the 17mm hex fill/level plug at the rear of the casing, but no obvious drain plug. There are two smaller torx bolts at the lowest point of the gearbox but imagine these are fixing gubbins inside? Some knowledge would be much appreciated. TIA

What gearbox do you have?

It's an ASY engine but unsure on gearbox. It's different to the polo SDI from what I can establish, which has the filler on the front of the casing & drain underneath, both 17mm hex. Mine has the filler at the rear above/behind the o/s driveshaft 

OK that’s the 020 type box. 

 

So something like this

 

 

 

 

Hint - Make sure you can remove the fill plug before draining the box.

Similar, you can just see the filler hex behind the wishbone bush in this pic

1 hour ago, AndySm said:

Similar, you can just see the filler hex behind the wishbone bush in this pic

⬆️ I meant to add 'but where's the drain?' 😬

#5 in this pic is the drain plug

4 hours ago, AndySm said:

Hi all. All set to needlessly change the gearbox oil on my 2002 1.9SDI & hit a problem pretty quickly! Where is the drain plug? I can see the 17mm hex fill/level plug at the rear of the casing, but no obvious drain plug. There are two smaller torx bolts at the lowest point of the gearbox but imagine these are fixing gubbins inside? Some knowledge would be much appreciated. TIA

 

FYP.

 

Just top it up, the oil is fully synthetic and doesn't need changing because it isn't pumped, doesn't get hot, and can't be contaminated.

Gearbox oil is not perishable with age and can only be lost through leaky seals.

53 minutes ago, nige8021 said:

#5 in this pic is the drain plug

 

Wrong type of gearbox though

28 minutes ago, Tech1e said:

 

Wrong type of gearbox though

That's from the 02* parts listing ??

30 minutes ago, sepulchrave said:

 

FYP.

 

Just top it up, the oil is fully synthetic and doesn't need changing because it isn't pumped, doesn't get hot, and can't be contaminated.

Gearbox oil is not perishable with age and can only be lost through leaky seals.

Confused. Why does anybody bother changing it then?

15 minutes ago, nige8021 said:

That's from the 02* parts listing ??

 

Yeah, SDI should be using the 001/002 gearbox. You can tell as that picture has the slave on the top. 

Edited 5 August, 20196 yr by Tech1e

The SD ASY engine is listed as havin 02T* gearbox ??

Fair enough. But looking at his photo from under the car clearly isn’t as the parts catalogue is indicating. 

 

Level bung is on the diff and no drain bung (as per workshop manual).

49 minutes ago, AndySm said:

Confused. Why does anybody bother changing it then?

 

Generally they don’t. The manual box isn’t on any service schedule. However it does no harm providing the right oil is used. 

If you regularly crunch gear changes, can't that throw metal chips into the oil?

7 minutes ago, KenONeill said:

If you regularly crunch gear changes, can't that throw metal chips into the oil?

 

Yes. Then generally sink to the bottom and are collected by the magnet traps. 

3 hours ago, AndySm said:

Confused. Why does anybody bother changing it then?

 

I have no idea, because they don't understand tribology?

I changed mine when I first got my Fabia. Had to buy a suction tool as no drain plug on mine either.

On 05/08/2019 at 09:33, AndySm said:

Similar, you can just see the filler hex behind the wishbone bush in this pic

 

That's the drain plug, fill plug is on opposite (inner) side of diff, a little higher. Just above/behind the right driveshaft.

Can't find my best pictures of it, but it's just partly visible on the extreme left hand edge of this photo. Ignore the red annotation, photo was taken for another purpose.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Better pic (though you can't see the drain plug in this one):

 

 

Edited 6 August, 20196 yr by Wino
Found a better pic

Great thanks. I get out & have a look