I recently bought an '89 RS with a 5-speed, and I know practically nothing about manual transmissions. I know with automatics you have to change the fluid every so often, but is it the same with manuals? If you do have to change it, how often should it be done? Also, what kind of fluid do you use and how much does it require?

Thanks in advance.

 

most ppl never change it in a manual but its a good idea to

if it has a lot of miles on it and you dont know if its everbeen changed then i would do it


aluminum case manual trannies usually take auto trans fluid

but not all of them do


iron case ones usually take gear oil


a few quarts

look in owners manual for the specs, its towards the back of the manual



or call auto zone make them look it up for you


good luck

 

Any third gen with a 5 speed manual will use Dexron/Mercon ATF. DO NOT USE GEAR OIL. the idiot that had my 83 TA before me had gear oil in it, and the internal bearings sound terrible and it vibrates under load at high speed now. Gear oil is NOT GOOD for our manual trannies.

When you lift the car you will find on the passenger side of tranny two plugs that have a square head on them which I believe is a 9/16. The bottom is for draining, and the top is for filling. I always liked to leave the drain plug out and pour about a quart of fluid in top to flush sediment out if present.

there is a spec for amount of ATF to use, but basically you can just fill tranny until the oil start running back out of the fill hole. That is how most do it. Good luck trying to do it the metered way.

Due to a horribly small space to work in, I advise you to go to your local parts store and get a hand pump with a rubber hose on the end. Its just a tube with a plunger that you can pull to suck up the fluid, then push in to pump it into the tranny. They are around $10 to $15 usually.

It's been awhile since I looked up the maintenance interval, but I believe its 25,000 mile service intervals. But a 100K is very common, Personally if I have been beating the crap out of it, I change at 25K, but normally 50K.

I have a 90 Bird with 210K miles on it and its still going strong with the fluid changed every 50K miles. And I thrash this car about every time I drive it. Always slammin gears.

 

The correct fluid for a 88-up T-5 (2nd design) is ATF.

The correct fluid for a 87-back one (1st design) is gear lube.

Yours is 2nd design, therefore it needs ATF.

It holds right near about 3 quarts dry. Probably 2½ - 2¾ if drained in the car (since the drain plug isn't at the lowest point, not all of it can get out).

 

There was much discussion about this topic a while back, though I don't recall the general consensus. The shop manual for my 85 IROC calls for Dextron II for both auto and manual trannies. I'm using Mobil 1 synthetic (75-90 gear lube) to good effect.

JamesC

 

If they call for dexron of any sort it shouldn't be run with gear oil. The thicker fluid doesn't get into the tighter tolerances nearly as well as the atf/dexron III. The thicker viscousity tends to be much harder on the syncros.

While you're at it, the diff fluid should probably also be changed, as that's another often(almost always) overlooked fluid.

 

I'm swapping in a whole new rear end (for disc brakes) in a couple months, so I'm going to hold off on the Diff. fluid for now.

Thanks to everyone else. I picked up some fluid today and I'm going to give it a shot this weekend.

 

what about royal purple manual trans fluid?