GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

I did a search but couldn't find anything on how to change your own gearbox (manual) fluid. Should be easy but is there a drain plug? What fluid suggestions are there? Thanks Andrew

Hi vibe-04There is a 24mm drain plug and either a 10mm hex fill plug or it's some standard full plug. The 03's aparently had a 14mm standard bolt type plug.Search for "Manual Transmission Drain". I found my info on newcelical.org but not you apparently need a membership. I didn't do a full write up but there is a lot of information if you search those words. Oh, and make sure you select to search the body of the post, not just the topic.If you need more help, I'll keep an eye on this thread and help where I can.Dave

base (5 speed) or GT (6 speed) ?

base 5 speed. thxs

sorry to be a while responding, life gets in the way sometimes, but I will try to grab some pics off my 03 5 speed this weekend.The procedure is pretty simple.
1. Park on a level surface, turn the engine off, and do whatever is appropriate for safety since you will be sliding under the car.
2. Remove the fill plug (doing now lets air in, helps the drain flow better)
3. Remove the drain plug, drain out all the old
4. Replace the drain plug
5. Refill though the fill plug hole. The Vibe, like most manual transmissions) sets the full level as the bottom of the fill hole. Basically fill it up till it starts to come back out, let whatever wants to come out come out, then it is full. (That's why being on a level surface is important)
6. Replace the fill plug,
7. clean up

As for which gear oil to use, the owner's manual specifies the type. Some people swear by Mobil 1, Redline, Amsoil, or others. When mine hit 60K miles, I put in Mobil 1 synthetic (of the proper weight/grade specified in the Vibe OM) . 15K miles later I was replacing the tranny for bad bearings. Did the Mobil 1 cause the bearing problem, or did it prevent it from happening earlier? I don't know, no way of telling. However, when I do mine again (and it is overdue) I will get whatever gear oil the Toyota dealer sells for use in the Matrix. Don't know what that is, but will find out soon.

(edit to reformat)

I didn't forget about this, just haven't gotten to it yet. I did stop at the Toyota dealer to buy genuine Toyota gear oil, and they didn't sell it. They said the only manual tranny gear oil they had was a big barrel of the stuff in the service department, they didn't sell quarts. I asked what gear oil they recommended for a Matrix, and they said go ask the guys at Autozone. Reminded me that the local Toyota dealer was a factor in my decision to buy a Vibe instead of a Matrix.

has anyone used royal purple for the tranny fluid? i know alot of guys up here that use that stuff, not sure if y'all got it down there but it's supposed to be really good

... is there a drain plug?

This pic shows the drain and fill plugs on my 5 speed manual tranny. Perhaps the actual plug bolt may have changed over the years, but the location shouldn't have. On mine, both were a 15/16" (which is perhaps 24 mm, but I didn't have a 24 mm socket) Fill plug shown from above, looking down from the front of the car, the drain plug shown from below, looking up from in front of the front drivers side tire
Supposedly the drain plug is in the same place on the GT's 6 speed, and there is a plug in the same place as the fill plug on both, but the document I have indicates the GT 6 speed fill plug is further to the right, beyond what is shown in the picture, more to the drivers side. probably roughly about the same height.

(edit to replace missing pic)

Everyone mentions to make sure the car is level when filling the transmission oil, makes sense. How do you get under there if you don't have a lift like a car shop to lift evenly around? Would putting the front on jack stands create enough of an angle to possibly lead to not a correct level of fluid being put in? Before I lowered my Vibe I probably could have crawled under there, but not with my S-techs.

it's about as easy to fill reaching in from the top as reaching up from the bottom. You could jack the thing up to drain it, just level it out when fillingI found a piece of an old fuel hose, (ensured it was clean), fit it on the gear oil bottle, that made it easier to pour the new oil in. However, that stuff is thick, and I can testify that it is easy to squeeze the bottle so hard that the hose will blow off and you can seriously lubricate the exterior of the transaxle.

Ok, cool, didn't realize I could reach the fill from the top. I was going to buy a small hand siphon pump to transfer the oil. I guess a piece of hose can do as well. Thanks!

I recommend Amsoil Manual Transaxle Fluid. https://www.amsoil.com/storefront/mtg.aspxI have had it in my pebble crusher for nearly 50,000 miles, and have no complaints. The shifts are smooth, and the synchro's still feel great.

Here are some other pics form a spare tranny I had left overThis shows the location of both the drain and the fill plugs

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Here is one of the drain plug

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Here is one of the fill plug

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THe last time I changed the tranny oil, instead of trying to put the oil in the side fill hole, I removed the side fill plug, but then I removed some plug fitting from the top of the tranny and dumped the oil in there. A lot easier to go in straight from the top than to get the oil through the side hole. Took the fill side plug out so I could tell when I had enough, took right at 2 quartsHere is the fitting on the top that I removed to make filling easier

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Graet post Joatmon. I'm thinking of changing my oil this weekend. I was curious what brands of gear oil others here have used. The local Auto Zone has Mobile 1 and Royal Purple.

Quote, originally posted by K-NINE »Graet post Joatmon. I'm thinking of changing my oil this weekend. I was curious what brands of gear oil others here have used. The local Auto Zone has Mobile 1 and Royal Purple. I used Redline MT90 (if I remember correctly). Redline something, anyway . It was the proper oil for the GT, not sure exactly what you would use, but it came highly recommended.

Quote, originally posted by K-NINE »I was curious what brands of gear oil others here have used. I am currently using 50 50 of RL MT90 and MTL. In the past it was Castrol Syntorq and Amsoil and Speciality Formulations.

I think the weather is finally going to cooperate enough for me to change my transmission fluid this weekend. I just picked up two quarts of Vavoline 75W/90 synthetic gear oil at the local NAPA. The bottle says it's compatible with the what the owner's manual recommends. It was on sale, too. The GM dealership wanted $27.00 a quart.

Thanks to Joatman's pics and mention of the upper nut to help fill. I did not have a normal piece of hose, but I found a bit of PEX hose which helps in a way because I'm not trying to hold the funnel, hose & bottle of fluid, the funnel sits snug in the PEX, so those need to be balanced, not held.

This is a great thread. The first time I changed my transmission fluid I used the specified gear oil in valvoline brand. It came in quart containers and it was a pain to get into the fill plug. My second change, wiser from the first, I used redline brand gear oil and a fluid transfer pump. It was way easier the second time. That's my experience

Some fish tank hose and a 15/16 offset wrench worked for me on my 2005. I had to shove the hose about 3 - 4" into the fill hole to keep the fluid from coming back out when squeezing the gear oil bottle. Two bottles is what was needed. After I filling on a level surface, I let the some (not much) gear oil drip back out to be come level with the fill hole. The Royal Purple gear oil has smoothed out the shift feel at the stick. My vehicle has 77k miles on it.

Harbor Freight sells a great pump for like 4.99. Put one end in the bottle and one in the fill plug till it drips out.

I did an oil swap on mine recently and decided to try Castrol Syngear in it. It's actually meant for heavy truck (3 ton and up) diffs, but it's still a 75/90 gl-5 synthetic and I get the stuff for less than a dollar a quart since I work at a truck tranny/diff shop. It should be interesting to see what it does in there.
I'm doing this as an experiment only though and I wouldn't recommend anyone else do it (unless I get some miraculous results out of it, we'll see in a year or so when I do a used oil analysis on it), my trans has really bad synchros and I'm trying to blow it up so I have an excuse to do a 6spd swap.

I'm going to try a half-and-half mix of MT-90 and Penzoil Synchromesh oils, as Monkey Wrench Racing suggests.
http://www.monkeywrenchracing.com/produ ... ts_id=1352
The lower viscosity should improve shifting this winter.
Currently using MT-90.
I'll post results later.

I put in the mix of Penz. Synchromesh and MT-90 yesterday and went on a drive.
In the city, stop-and-go, didn't get to 5th gear. Ambient temp mid 70's.
Right from the start there was a clear difference.
There's always been a slight "crunch" felt in the stick upshifting 1-2.
Switching from Valvoline dino 75w-90 to MT-90 helped it some, but now the crunch is completely gone.
The other shifts feel really smooth too.
Time will tell how it does when it gets cold.
Averaging the 40C & 100C viscosities of the two lubes works out to about the same as MT-85, so maybe I'll try that next time.

I just wanted to add a little something for anyone looking this up.. Gear oil is NOT transmission oil! Yes, that means 75w90 mobil1 should NOT under any circumstances go inside your transmission! It will destroy the brass synchronizers over time. Manual transmission fluid like Redline MT-90 or OEM fluid should be used.

Thank you to gtv237 and everyone for your input and advice on this thread. I've been looking for a while now on any suggestions for my transmission oil change and this really helped. I did not actually realize that gear oil and manual transmission fluid wasn't the same, and gear oil is exactly what I had in my c60(6 speed) transmission, so I'm imagining that's prob where some of my tranny problems are coming from. Again just wanted to thank you all.

I just did an oil change & am doing the gear oil next
I got the Redline MT 90 & wow, Lordco here in Canada wants $38 a liter.. !
Good thing for good accounts I got it for $22 but thats still pricey.
Mobile 1 Synthetic Oil & Redline gear box change total cost $120 Canadian..lol
But its my sons 1st car & its worth it if its going to last him any sort of time.. Which it better !! haha

Wow can sneak up on a ninja with this car now she's so quiet..!
I added 30ml of Seafoam per liter of oil not a tick not a sound from the engine.
Love that stuff.!
That 15/16 Nut on the top of the crank case was so much easier that using the filler hole thanks for that tip !

Cid67 wrote:I just did an oil change & am doing the gear oil next
I got the Redline MT 90 & wow, Lordco here in Canada wants $38 a liter.. !
Good thing for good accounts I got it for $22 but thats still pricey.
Mobile 1 Synthetic Oil & Redline gear box change total cost $120 Canadian..lol
But its my sons 1st car & its worth it if its going to last him any sort of time.. Which it better !! haha

I would not put MT90 in your C59 Toyota transmission. The GM recommended fluids are completely wrong in the owners manual from the coolant and gear oil. I just put the recommended 75W85 Syntorq from GM, also @ over $30/quart and the shift feel deteriorated quite a lot, especially when cold. Our transmissions require a straight 75W GL-4 (or lower) not GL-5 low viscosity formula. Toyota dealers do not sell bottles in quarts here in Canada. As far as my research only Ravenol, FUCHS Sintofluid and Castrol FE 75w none of which are available in Canada. Be careful what you put in your Toyota transmission. A very noticeable difference in shift feel will result, especially in the cold weather of Canada, if you put anything other than a straight 75W LV gear oil. My problem below...


viewtopic.php?f=12&t=45112

I recently replaced the manual trans fluid in my '09 base 1.8L and used Redline MT-LV. It completely solved the cold-weather 2nd-to-3rd grind i was experiencing. Not the cheapest at around $25/quart but it's one of the best $50 i've spent, not having to cringe at that grind every morning the first time i go through the gears (or having to let the RPMs come down/double-clutch). I did the fluid change at about 150k and have put on another 5k since then with no issues. Highly recommend the Redline MT-LV!