tranny oil frothy on dip stick.

[987687]

So the 5 speed in my legacy used to shift wonderfully and fast without any grinds ever. It was a very nice transmission.

Now though ... It's been acting weird.

I haven't done anything different to it. Sometimes it will grind going into 4th gear up-shifting, sometimes not. It's random. But today after a long highway drive on a very hot day it started shifting very slowly. It just won't go between the gears easily and requires me to force the shifter a little bit, whereas it used to just slide nicely into gear. If I try to make it shift as fast as it should, it grinds a bit and clunks really hard into gear.

 

I checked the clutch, it isn't dragging, fully disengaging. I can tell because 1. when shifting it very slowly into reverse I don't get any clicking of the gears like you would if the clutch was dragging, and I adjusted the clutch cable way in just to make sure.

 

So I went to check the oil level. AND.... It's all frothy on the dip stick!! What could that possibly mean?

I tried searching all over the net and couldn't find much

[forester2002s]

Let it sit overnight, and then check the oil level again.

That might allow the 'froth' to settle, and give you a better reading on the dipstick.

[gbhrps]

There should be all kinds of people jumping in to share their wisdom on your difficulty. Here's mine. Difficult to shift/noisy transmissions can be greatly improved with a draining and refill with Lucas Red Line MT 90 transmission fluid, providing there isn't something mechanically wrong in your box.

 

Years ago I had a terrible time with the noisy and grinding of the tranny in my 1954 MG TF. The Red Line MT 90 dramatically changed the transmission's personality. Shortly there after I changed the tranny fluid in my 1990 Nissan 300ZX as well, and while the change was not as dramatic, it certainly made an improvement. Good Luck!

[Olnick]

How old is the tranny? How many miles on it?

[svxpert]

How old is the tranny? How many miles on it?

 

+ what maintenance have you done to it?

[987687]

It has 112,000 miles on it, and I did a flush at 88k miles.

I bought it at 87k miles, and it shifted very well, and then shifted better after the flush.

The transmission does leak a little bit, but not much. In the summer when the oil is thinner I have to add about 1/2 quart a month.

For oil I just use generic SAE heavy gear oil. I think 75w90, it's whatever the manual says to use.

[johnceggleston]

AND.... It's all frothy on the dip stick!! What could that possibly mean?

I tried searching all over the net and couldn't find much

 

is it frothy like lots of air bubbles or is it like mixed with water, brown milkshake frothy??

[bheinen74]

Better than when it looks lumpy, chunky, and green, thats what it does when you use the "scotty's cocktail".

[DrSalt]

Sounds like the oil is getting pretty hot. I used a pint of Power Punch gear additive in my 5spd when I changed it out, and used it in the 4 speed of my mustang. makes the oil pretty sticky and won't foam up under heat as much. if you use the stuff though do it during a full oil change on the tranny and put it in FIRST then add normal gear oil on top of it, or it won't want to mix up as well lol.

 

Also from experience... you might want to fix the oil leak on the tranny... ate the syncros off 4th gear in my mustang's first tranny because I didn't know it was pushing out oil where the linkage runs into the bellhousing

[svxpert]

It has 112,000 miles on it, and I did a flush at 88k miles.

I bought it at 87k miles, and it shifted very well, and then shifted better after the flush.

The transmission does leak a little bit, but not much. In the summer when the oil is thinner I have to add about 1/2 quart a month.

For oil I just use generic SAE heavy gear oil. I think 75w90, it's whatever the manual says to use.

 

 

how do you flush a manual transmission? i have only heard of it with autos.

[987687]

It's full of bubbles frothy. I know what frothy watery oil looks like, and it definitely isn't that.

And the oil is green, because that's the colour of the oil I use, but the colour hasn't changed any from the colour the oil was when it went in. It doesn't look like it's been burned or anything.

 

Right now I'm hesitant to do much to it as I'm 500 miles away from home helping someone move back home. So next weekend I'm going to be driving 500 miles with my car loaded full to the brim. Which I hope doesn't hurt it any worse :/

[nipper]

Frothy usually means it is overfilled.

 

 

nipper

[987687]

Frothy usually means it is overfilled.

 

 

nipper

 

Hmm, interesting. I could swear it wasn't. But then I may have filled/checked it on an un-level surface :-\

I'll make sure I'm on a level surface tomorrow and check back in .

 

Thanks for all the help guys