amascio
03-10-2008, 06:25 PM
I have had it with this first to second gear grinding that my Speed has, and I think I am not alone.
After driving about 15 miles in cold weather the gear lube finally warms up (and thins out) enough to drive the car without worrying too much about grinding the gears.
It took me awhile to get up the nerve to go totally out of spec with the gear oil (70/80 MTL vs 75/90 MT 90) but after getting better shifting with a 50/50 mix of MTL and MT90 I deciided to give the straight MTL a shot.
I just changed out the MTL in my 330ci and it had NO wear metal in it at all at 30k service interval. I drained it into a white pan and in bright sunlight I couldn't see the first bit of filings, chunks or otherwise. It'd take a Blackstone oil analsys to find the wear metals, if there are any.
Now, I hammer the Bimmer way worse than I do my speed so based on how well the MTL did in the BMW, I put the MTL in the speed.
Right off the bat, the shifting is much better - smoother engagements with little resistance to going into gear. Now, if I try to make it grind the 1--2 shift, I can but it takes something like a slow, low RPM roll out in first followed by a hard tug into second to do it - with these trannies there's no getting away from that. Other than that it's really smoother shifting.
So I'm testing the MTL theory and I'll get back as I encounter some cold weather and the miles pile up. I'll be checking for rattle or other possible bad side effects.
FWIW the 50/50 mix that came out was clean as could be - no visible debris and no apparent heat stress. The saga continues .....
After driving about 15 miles in cold weather the gear lube finally warms up (and thins out) enough to drive the car without worrying too much about grinding the gears.
It took me awhile to get up the nerve to go totally out of spec with the gear oil (70/80 MTL vs 75/90 MT 90) but after getting better shifting with a 50/50 mix of MTL and MT90 I deciided to give the straight MTL a shot.
I just changed out the MTL in my 330ci and it had NO wear metal in it at all at 30k service interval. I drained it into a white pan and in bright sunlight I couldn't see the first bit of filings, chunks or otherwise. It'd take a Blackstone oil analsys to find the wear metals, if there are any.
Now, I hammer the Bimmer way worse than I do my speed so based on how well the MTL did in the BMW, I put the MTL in the speed.
Right off the bat, the shifting is much better - smoother engagements with little resistance to going into gear. Now, if I try to make it grind the 1--2 shift, I can but it takes something like a slow, low RPM roll out in first followed by a hard tug into second to do it - with these trannies there's no getting away from that. Other than that it's really smoother shifting.
So I'm testing the MTL theory and I'll get back as I encounter some cold weather and the miles pile up. I'll be checking for rattle or other possible bad side effects.
FWIW the 50/50 mix that came out was clean as could be - no visible debris and no apparent heat stress. The saga continues .....