I have just done a Gearbox oil change for my BMW E66 730d a precautionary measure since they tend to be a common cause of failure.

I was thinking how often should the Vantage Gearbox Oil be changed?

I would assume it is milage and type of use related?

Is it also a case of if it aint broke dont try fixing it?

At the moment the shifting is fine even in cold.

 

Well Aston Martin says every 4 years or 40k miles for manual ttransmission, and if you have and auto DB9 the diff fluid is also every 4 years or 40k miles.

 

Thats OK then I have another 10k till its required. Thanks AMFixer

 

Yes except in their books it's 40k or 4 years, which ever comes first ...

 

How strange that Aston say whichever comes first.

Its not like the fluid has a shelf life? What if the car has been stood for 4 years with only 2,000 miles for example I cant see the fluid going bad.

 

The time recommendation is very common, even Hondas use this. Not defending it, just saying its common

 

Some companies do have a shelf life on there oils, does Castrol and Sheel have one on the fluids used for Aston, maybe or maybe not..Only the engineers that made the choice of this fluid with Castrol and Shell would know..and he/she's most prob looong gone and working at McLaren or something now..LOL

Usually if there si a shelf life on the fluid, break down fluid is half the shelf life in time..so if 8 year self life = 4 year in vehicle break down life..of course ppl will debate this and that there is no shelf life to gear oil..and then some will get all techincal to the ground concrete causing humidity in the rear axle/drivetrain parts which results in contaminated oils over a 4 year time frame...the possibilities are end-less ..

Who ever could answer me this 100%, could also answer why V8 Vantage has a 24mth term on brake fluid, while V12 Vantage and Rapide/DBx's have a 12mth term on brake fluid...

 

Yes true. Maybe they feel that a V8 Vantage wont put as much effort on the brakes then a more powerful variant hence the longer service interval???

My BMW 730d E66 has a so called 'Sealed for life' Gearbox. That means it does not require any fluid change. However there have been many on the BMW forums that have done the change at 100k to prevent Gearbox failure of which there are some.

 

Check this..Aston workshop manual states the ZF trans fluid is sealed for life..so all the DBx's and Rapide don't need the trans fluid changed..yet the service sheet states otherwise ..hehe

I've questioned Aston on this..response is "follow the latest article, either service sheet or WSM" ..being sheet is updated every year, that is which we are to follow..perfect, yet still today the WSM states "The ZF 6HP26 automatic transmission is ‘filled for life’ at manufacturer and will not normally need to be serviced."

 

A gentle bump.

Has anyone done a 2017 V12 dogleg transaxle gear oil change?

Read through all the necessary threads on this forum and they are very helpful. Spent sometime underneath the car looking for the filler + drain plug and filter screen. Pretty sure I identified the first two but the filter is nowhere to be found.

And I did find an oil level sight glass with the inscriptions V12 Oil V8 and a couple of horizontal lines pointing to where the oil level should be for a V12 and V8. The oil appears to be quite clear. So I plan to delay the service til next year. But should I go ahead with the change, my concern is if the new fluid should still fill up to the filler plug level. Or just fill in the same volume that drains out?

Any feedback or thoughts appreciated.

Update:

Looks like I found the answer and hopefully someone can verify. Since the dogleg is a manual version of a Sportshift, the oil sight glass is where the original Sportshift uses as a fill plug (see last picture from a V8 Vantage S). That explains that on a V8 Sportshift, one fills up to the aperture, where the bottom line inscription points to the lower end of the sight glass. But on the V12, the oil level has to be on the top part of the sight glass (maybe a quart more?). I am guessing only way to fill up that much extra is to move the fill plug further up and install a sight glass on the original fill plug location.

 

I've done the diff fluid twice due to be called on the annual, not from the mileage.