P38 - Gearbox Fluid/Oil

Before everyone shouts, yes I know book says it should be Dex IID in both the manual and auto box :der:; however my question is 'is there a legitimate reason why mine should be full of oil instead?'

Having changed the rad I had to undo the cooler pipes and it's bugged me since that it had oil in it, albiet very nice clean oil, rather than ATF. Is this a dodgy workshop trick :suspicious: to quieten a failing box? Assuming I should change it back to ATF, how careful do I need to be in ensuring all the oil is out, does it need flushing in some way? Although I'm sure it probably doesn't help, is this the likely cause of poor syncro/gear shifts?

All thoughts welcome.

kernowdragon said:

Before everyone shouts, yes I know book says it should be Dex IID in both the manual and auto box :der:; however my question is 'is there a legitimate reason why mine should be full of oil instead?'

Having changed the rad I had to undo the cooler pipes and it's bugged me since that it had oil in it, albiet very nice clean oil, rather than ATF. Is this a dodgy workshop trick :suspicious: to quieten a failing box? Assuming I should change it back to ATF, how careful do I need to be in ensuring all the oil is out, does it need flushing in some way? Although I'm sure it probably doesn't help, is this the likely cause of poor syncro/gear shifts?

All thoughts welcome.

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Someone may have put hydraulic oil in there. Or as you say thicker oil has been used to quieten a noisey box. I have seen transmission fluid that is clear. Used to be an old trick of adding a gallon of clear transmission fluid to 40 gallons of Kerosene and you got 41 gallons of usable diesel. If your that keen on having red oil in the box. Draw some out and mix it with ATF if it turns to jelly or after it is left standing for a few days it has seperated, forget it and leave it in. If it mixes without a problem drain the box and fill with ATF then to be on the safe side run that for a while and drain and re-fill. Should be ok. But will cost a bloody fortune in ATF. And you may end up with a noisey gearbox?

Land Rover changed the oil spec for the manual gearbox to there own spec MTF-94...its clear oil not red.

Try a search for MTF-94 here.

what he said, mines got the mtf 94 in. nice clean oil thats not red.

Thanks chaps! Is the MTF compatible with AFT, i.e. can they be mixed, or have I got to go to dealer for it, as I obviously lost a bit in changing the rad?

no you dont really want to be mixing them, there two very different spec oils. stick with the mtf 94, its not that dear neither.