With my wife's car it was easy to get the drain and filler plugs out, Sod's Law of course applied with one of the plugs (I forget which) for the tools and the space I had available, the Goldilocks distance was just off with each option but not difficult or that awkward mainly that I only have a larger sized (cheap) torque wrench, same length as my old Draper torque bar, and the car was only about 3" off the ground restricting the swing of the torque wrench but I managed quite easily.

Sensors can sometimes be more awkward to remove, the filler and drain plugs should not be overtight unless something or someone has gone or done wrong.

The rule always is make sure you can remove and refit the filler plug and check it and the threads on the box are OK before even thinking about removing any drain plug,

Very annoyingly for me I need the 3" raise just to get the plastic under cover off, if it was my car I might leave it off, I then check the filler plug, in the case of the box on my wife's car a lot more oil came out than I expected as I was just checking the night before I was going to do the job. I always allow lots of time to do any farting about with cars, my ego doesn't need me to boast how quick I can do any job, I like to allow lots of time for mugs of tea and pees and in case I can wander off and do something more interesting (that's most things.

I have plenty of new oil as I like to add some (warmed) fresh new oil to the very end of the drain to act as a sort of mini-flush.

Check and clean plugs and box threads.

I always empty with the oil hot (usual cautions about doing such things) so that the oil comes out more thoroughly and leave it to drain as long as possible to get out as much old oil (and whatever) as possible as put above. I let the box cool before refilling, as I say I don't rush at all.

I enlisted the (always very relucent) help of my glamorous assistant to gravity fill from the engine bay as the funnel and garden hose I was using to fill wasn't long enough to hook up so it didn't fall over and spill oil in the engine bay as I went below the car to check the hose remained in the filler hole and to slightly withdraw it as it got near to full and see when the new oil was spilling out of the gearbox.

Like much servicing, maintenance and repairs the job just really boils down to clean and lubricate, even the same with the car's computers often cleaning off the error codes or computer programs. Nothing on the oil change was difficult just like many jobs on a car, potentially messy, dirty and awkward but much of it depends on your attitude and mine is never great when working on our cars but I'm very patient when doing simple jobs on other peoples cars even when I get a lot dirtier and a lot more to clean and clear up.

I am not a mechanic and always do a great job but I have found I can do these simple jobs better than many of the professional I have paid in the past simply because I take my time and do the job thoroughly and I only want to do the work once and not have to return to it other than checks as required.

When I have borrowed a lift or pit I found the effort of taking all the tools and materials required and clearing and clean up the work area and disposing of used materials was usually more effort than it was worth, some places might need a bit of clearing and cleaning before you start the job anyway and I am far from fastidious about such things but I don't want to add dirt or mess to aa job that is about cleaning or keeping things clean.

HTH.

Thanks for your feedback. I try to document myself to this future operation as much as I can :)

Fyi : eventually find out I have an MQ100 gearbox

(gearbox UDB, gearbox diff. MQ100 don't know what these all mean but googling a bit helped)

Edited 13 March, 20251 yr by fabia29

Hello everyone, sorry for the long delay in replying, but in my area I had trouble finding a car lift to rent.

But the symptom: the first gear movement was hard to engage in 1st and Reverse when cold, and it was quite quick : no symptoms after 5 minutes of driving.

In the meantime, I went to Skoda because my vehicle was under warranty. They obviously reproduced the problem BUT think it's normal and won't damage the gearbox

(I have serious doubts given the grinding noise in Reverse).

Anyway, I bought two 1-liter bottles of Liqui Molly Top Tec MTF 5300 70W-75W and I found a lift to change it (because chains like Midas, Speedy, etc ...

will never use oil not specified by Skoda).

First surprise: it was very, very difficult to access the fill hole. It's at the top of the gearbox and you have to unscrew a Torx screw that holds a plastic plug. Then, you absolutely cannot add the oil without a good quality syringe with a nice long, flexible tube. The bottle's tube is too short.

The filling point is NOT overflow-style, so it takes 1.1 liters, which is more than one bottle, and you can't know how much you've put in because there's no access at all when I put my finger in; there's a metal part that prevents me from reaching inside.

Worse still, with spills on the ground, the syringe to fill, etc., you don't know how much you're putting in... After some calculations, I determined that I might have put in 1.25 liters instead of the 1.1 liters listed for the oil change (and 1.3 liters for a completely new or disassembled gearbox).

In short, I hope I haven't damaged my gearbox because there's no oil breather like there is for engine oil. At most, there might be an air pressure relief hole, but I couldn't feel anything with my finger (and again, there was no visibility).

The oil change was yesterday, and today I only started the car three times today, including once this morning. So far, there's no suspicious smell (there was a little yesterday, but that's normal with the syringe that got a bit everywhere, and the heat), and the gears shift smoothly. So I think I'll leave it as is.

I had not driven the car since Saturday (we are Thursday) and it got parked out with a lot, lot, lot of rain ... at a certain point where the break was still sticking despite released !!

Even with those conditions, speed 1 and R worked directly :

1 = without having to force

R = without making a noise

Therefore I also validate this oil you suggested (i.e Liqui Moly Top Tec MTF 5300 70-75W). I don't know if by just changing with the original VAG oil I would have had the same result either just because my oil was "tired" after only 5 years.

Anyway the only people to blame are the Skoda official mechanics who said "there is no problem in your car, it is the way it is, known gearbox issue on these MQ100 models" !!

Edited 4 December, 20254 Dec by fabia29

Does it still do it if you rapidly pump the clutch a few times first?

Hi Steve,

Haven't tried yet.

I am just comparing the situation with the same protocol before/after oil change.