Mine was a 57 Roomster (November 2007) and it was 2nd gear I heard the gear change noise. It does appear now this was a known 2007 Roomster situation.

Reading that old post, how would you add extra oil ?  It comes out of the side fill hole when at that level, would you have to tip the car to the side ?  I just filled to that level, drove the car a bit and added again to fill level to confirm it hadn't changed (dropped) after using all the gears.

The noise description Grumbling or Crunching, all I can say 2nd gear was not the silent slip into gear as the other gears were. You didn't have to use any more pressure to change gear, it was just not silent. I can't remember now was it only up or down shifts, but it was alway to 2nd gear. I didn't like the noise as the noise made me think something must be wearing more, in making a noise and it would only get worse until ultimate failure. So I was relieved when just an oil change returned the silent, smoother gear changes.

4 hours ago, aubrey said:

It comes out of the side fill hole when at that level, would you have to tip the car to the side ? 

Assuming your gearbox is the same type as the posters in the thread you linked to, then yes that would be one way easy to do it.

 

When I changed the gear oil on my wife's 2015 Mk3 Fabia at 5.5 years, 38k-miles, I checked that I could easily remove and put back the fill/level plug easily with the tools I had before removing the drain plug, on removing the fill/level plug quite a lot of oil came out of the filler hole, the car was level.  I didn't measure how much came out from there but easily an overfill, whether this is from the car build or later I have no idea of course.  I filled to level and as you checked again after a drive.

 

I thought the gear changes felt a very little better, but as others would say I was I also considered I might be fooling myself (placebo) as I didn't drive the car much then (not much more now) as it's my wife's car but unprompted my wife said she thought the gear changes felt a bit better.  Of course she might be experiencing placebo but it certain wouldn't have been to stoke my ego, we've been together since the 1970s.

 

Edited 17 January, 20242 yr by nta16
wrong word

No idea if this has been mentioned amongst all the bickering, but one thing to be aware of if you do change the oil, is that the car needs to be nice and level, both side-to side and especially front to back. If the nose only is lifted, the oil level will be wrong when refilling to overflow.

4 hours ago, Breezy_Pete said:

No idea if this has been mentioned amongst all the bickering, but one thing to be aware of if you do change the oil, is that the car needs to be nice and level, both side-to side and especially front to back. If the nose only is lifted, the oil level will be wrong when refilling to overflow.

 

If the fill plug is at the front then it'll be slightly overfilled which isn't really a problem.

It isn't. It's right at the back.

11 minutes ago, Breezy_Pete said:

It isn't. It's right at the back.

 

Tricky, needs some sort of jury rigged filling hose to allow the oil to be put in from above while the car sits level on the ground.

 

More trouble than it's worth really.

I used one of these, a cheap item that did the task brilliantly. I had the oil container on the ground, under the car and just put one hose in the top of that container and the other in the side fill hole of the gearbox.

I'd recommend that item to anyone, it was really effective and simple.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/hilka-pro-craft-multipurpose-siphon-pump-kit/580hp

I was able to use a funnel, hose off-cut, gravity and a reluctant glamorous assistant.

 

I bought one of those plastic pumps (not Hilka labelled) a few years back, £4 off eBay then, to use once but it got used a few times over the years so I bought a second one for coolant use, one of them packed up eventually but I still have the other.

 

£8.49 currently on eBay. - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/174159016418