February 16, 2007

  • Van Update

    Today I did a van thing I've been meaning to do for a really long time. I think I put it off because it's messy and involves being under the van a lot.

    But today I climbed down under there and made a big mess in order to change the gear oil. Here's how you do it, if anyone's curious. I bought a 17mm transaxle key socket ($3), which worked out OK. There's not a lot of room down there. For the drain plug, I ended up using the socket as an allen key, with a 17mm wrench on that. If that didn't make any sense, then go look at that link, if you care to. For the fill plug, I just put the socket on a u-joint extender.

    The main thing here, however, is that you have to clean off the transaxle around the fill plug, because you can't let any dirt get in there while you're filling it up. So I scoured 20 years'-worth of grime off a four-inch square section of the transaxle with a toothbrush. SimpleGreen and elbow grease. Squirt some, scrub some, wipe with paper towel, inspect, repeat. A lot.

    Then the second interesting part from a storytelling standpoint is that you need a length of hose to thread through the undercarriage and out through the wheel well. Because there's just no other way to fill the thing than to remove the transaxle, which is not an option.

    The hose worked out great. I used a clear blue plastic hose I found at the store, designed for hooking a garden hose to your kitchen sink ($6). I cut off the connectors and jammed a funnel ($2) into one end. The other end fit right in the fill hole with enough space to leak when it was full. Just perfect.

    The old oil looked cooked. (Say that three times fast.) Like old deep-fry oil. The magnet in the drain plug had a little hairdo of metal filings. And thankfully there were no bigger chunks. The metal filings were tough, though, because no matter how you'd wipe them off, they'd end up stuck back to the drain plug, since it's magnetized. I eventually had to rinse it off in running water, and then immediately dried it and dunked it in the new gear oil. Otherwise the plug wouldn't have gone back in, because of the chunks of metal stuck to the threads.

    I refilled it with synthetic MT90. Down the funnel, through the tube, into the tranny case. I only needed 4 quarts. Filled it to overflowing and then when it was done overflowing I put the plug back in.

    Took the van for a spin. Shifting is a little smoother, and maybe more consistent. But there's definately greater peace of mind.

    Content for search engines to find: vanagon volkswagen 2.1l manual transmission 091 091/11

Comments (2)

  • I'd have tried filling it with a suction gun and long hose. Or, dollar-wise, an oil change place could done it quick and easy and cheap. They probably wouldn't have been as careful with the magnet, though.

    Forgive all this second guessing. : )

  • S'awright. If you'd been telling me this while I was doing it, though, it'd be a different story.

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