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MG MGF Technical - PG1 manual gearbox. Attention to the oil level !

Hi all,

fun got back yesterday after I removed the hardtop from the car and had a nice tour in sunny conditions through the nice hill area east of Dusseldorf :)

Today... rain... Hmm :(
Anyway, went to the garage an looked for the gearbox oil level. I know this was subject already several times. To sort out further confusions regarding bolt locations etc. I hosted the works result pix to this site.
http://www.mgfcar.de/gearbox/refill.html

Filled up half a litre of the expensive stuff. Now as assumed before... I bought to less. Another can is on the buyers list.

Now I'm sure as well from own experiance that MGR saved costs in leaving out the right MTF-94 gearbox oil quantity by factory.
Put in a little and let the customer buy 'later'. Errr !!

Ladies and Gentleman take care and fill up before you get troubles. Special advise to all who have never checked or need to use a bad MGR garage for service.

Filling worked without special tools or a syringe to hardly splash in bit for bit.
No a 8mm hose for pressed air pushed into the oil can and sealed with tape did as well.

HTH
Dieter
PS. got the broken front fog light changed as well. Enhanced now with front fog cover plates. Would recommend.
Dieter K.

will be checking mine this week ,thanks for advice, Dave.
DC Morris

Hello Dave,

would be good to know which oil you buy to enhance the page with more options.

Full Synthetic 75W80 GL-4 seams no usual stuff and I looked at about 15 different gearbox oil can stickers before I found the Castrol SMX-S with equal specs.
MTF-94 'original' was not common at Halfords like motorcar DIY shops here in DE.

Regards
Dieter
PS. just buy 1 litre to save time.
Dieter K.

will let you know, Dave.
DC Morris

Funny you mention this Dieter, I am just about to check My gear box oil after having seen a bit of oil splashed on the forward facing cover on the CAT. I believe it is the same problem Andy had with Scarlet. (Andy what was the name of that seal, and do you have the part number by any chance...)

I was just about to ask what oil is recommended but you have already answered that question. That's a job for mext weekend.

Tim

tim woolcott

Tim,

I think it was the third motion oil seal (apparently quite a common fault in early Fs).

Unfortunately when i had it changed, my dealership replaced it with the wrong (later) type and instead of curing an oil leak they not only gave me a substantial new one, they also left the car in a dangerous condition, with the drive-shaft moving in and out of the gearbox! So, i can give the part number for the wrong one... :-(

Fanfare please - Mike Satur to the rescue! :-)

Mike changed the seal when he diagnosed the bodged filter installation (causing the oil consumption, the engine was being strangled and it was sucking oil from the head, past the scrubbers and into the plenum where it was being injected into the combustion chambers - same dealership fitted the filter...) Anyway, Mike being Mike, the receipt i have from him is hand written and although it lists the jobs done, it doesn't give part numbers. He did give me the old one back though and it is currently sitting on a shelf in my garage.

SF
Scarlet Fever


Who´s been raving about this like a drunk parrot for ages ? Anyone heard it before ?
Carl Blom

Dieter,

How come the location of the top up plug for my gear box seems to be in different position to yours. If I remove the rear nearside wheel two nice large hex drain and top up and drain plugs can be seen..... Huh!?

One question on topping up... how do I know when I have put enough in? Do I fill all the way to the top up plug hole?
tim woolcott

How would you normally know if the oil level is low ??

Gaz
('96 VVC ... Hurricane'd)
Gaz R

Noises from the box when engine-breaking (overrun ?),even harder than normal to shift gears,if run for a long time also other than 5´th gear gets more and more noisy. Over here not one single box that was checked had oil-level up to the filling hole, old and nearly new cars the same :(
As Dieter say´s, 1 litre might not be enough to top up to the correct level.
Synthetic gearbox oils are always GL5 WITHOUT the harmful additives that GL5-labeled mineral oils contains. So it is safe to go for any synthetic labeled GL4 /5 or only GL5 but stay away from non-synthetic marked GL5 oils as they contain too strong additives and makes gearshifting even harder !
Have a look at Dieters site to confirm filling and drain-plugs. Stay well clear from other "plugs" as these contains springs and balls for the gearchange mechanism....

BR, Carl.
Carl Blom

Tim, just checked the w/s manual - and Dieter's pix are naturally spot on. Not sure what those hex-bolts are there for, but I'd be tempted to leave them well alone now given what Carl has said.

Very useful info regarding oil, thanks Carl :o)
Rob Bell

Rob, Agreed..... Fancy doing a back to back oil checking exercise next Saturday....Axle stands and trolley jack at the ready?
tim woolcott

Tyres look a little worn Dieter...

>> http://www.mgfcar.de/gearbox/Dsc00605.jpg <<

;-)

SF
Scarlet Fever

Sounds like a good idea Tim. Trouble is the road outside my house has a massive camber on it, and my drive is on a slope :o(

We need that car lift at the MGF Centre! LOL
Rob Bell


Hi all,
might be a slight problem when using axle stands ,be sure to use 4 of them as oil-level needs to be checked when car is well leveled in all directions.
Don´t You have a chain of fairly cheap DIY-garages with lifts to be rented /hour in UK ? At this time of the year they are a relief when doing some work on the car. Approx. 10 Pounds /hour for "non members" over here and even a good one in my small town..

BR, Carl.
Carl Blom

DIY Garages - I was asking about this just last week. Turned out that they no longer exist :0( Four axle stands it'll have to be.
tim woolcott

Be carefull using four axle stands as there is nothing stopping the car rolling, this shouldn't be a problem, but to be sure only tighten and losten the plug with two wheels on the ground and chocked - you should be able to get a reasonable seal using just your hand tight whilst you move the car.

Will
Will Munns

@ Scarlet,
>Tyres look a little worn Dieter...

>>> http://www.mgfcar.de/gearbox/Dsc00605.jpg <<

Of course, well spotted. I'm after the summer set up currently.
Toyo 195 is currently 57 EURO and the 215 is 67 EURO only.
Never seen so cheap.

Above pic shows also the 'Hammerite' repair paint job at some rust locations :)
Dieter K.

bear in mind the F uses the same trusty PG1 gearbox used on Montegos and Maestros and 600 / 800 etc. IIRC Rog P has discussed previously that the filler plug is *not* a level plug, and the only reliable way to fill it correctly is to (1) drain the box, (2) fill the box with the correct amount of oil carefully pre-measured. This is OK as long as you have an oil-tight box but is a bit wasteful if you have leaky driveshaft seals and just want to top up occasionally :-(
BTW the Monty application requires engine-grade oil *not* this fancy MTF94 stuff - I use the same 5W/50 Mobil 1 that goes in the turbo lump. Any one know why the spec changed ?
David

Hello David,
just checked the archives for Rog's advise.
Nothing found but discussions about the oil itself and standard advise from Rog due to fill until it pours out.
See technical thread 'Gearbox oil' from 2000.
Search term *Does anybody have instructions for filling the gearbox.* should lead to the right thread.

Dieter K.

Good Evening Dieter
I don't want to do this but i feel i must.

Dieter........i am ...sorry form all the Nazi Jokes. Your goverment like so many has the good sense to have nothing to do with this WAR in Iraq.

America and Britan......the Nazis now:(

May our children and the children (those not killed) forgive us.
Mega
Mega

when i went in to motor shop looking for 75 80w gp4 fully synth oil, shop asst said when he looked in his ref book that oil in gearbox in f is down as engine oil, so didn't buy anything at moment, if as Dave says above pg1 is used, is that fully synth oil? , what are the chances of me buying gp4/5 full synth oil to top up,and end up having a different mix of oils in box? , or is complete drain and refil best answer, how much oil does gear box hold? cheers Dave T6 DCM.
DC Morris

By coincedence, I've just been surfing for more about the PG1 and oil terms.
Some websites mention semi-sythetic some other full-sythetic.
First sources on webside relate to Land Rover change from R380 gearbox to the PG1. Mentego got just closed down when the MTF94 got regular at Rover.

I'll put this options to the oil site later. Pretty sure it will be no problem using this.

Shell Spirax GSX 75W-80 GL-4 (full synthetic)
Fina Pontonic TI 75W80 GL-4 (semi-sythetic)
Castrol VMX TI 75W80 GL-4 (Semi synthetic) (seams no longer availiable.
That's why I went for the
Castrol SMX-S 75W-80 GL-4 (full synthetic)

Notice the 'S' is important. The SMX-O is special mixture for Opel (Vauxhall) cone gears.

I assume Carl's sensitive nose smelling no full synth-synthetic may be right and MTF94 is indeed semi-synthetic.

Due to mixing I would not worry. Which doesn't mean it's right ;)
Dieter K.

Dieter,

I found the photo a little confusing.
The green arrows (filler) point towards the filler plug. The red arrows (drain) point away from the drain plug.
The plug is where the red arrows start? Or is it?
It would be much clearer if you just had one green arrow and one red arrow BOTH pointing at their actual plugs.

Mick
M F Anderson

This thread was discussed between 02/03/2003 and 04/03/2003

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