Just my opinion, but that's REALLY bad for it. The reason they say dx2/3 is because these things run plastic synchro rings. btw they're over $100 each. I've worked on cars and trucks for about 10 years now and even in 18 speed road ranger gear boxes (which are rated at over 2200lb/ft torque capacity and used behind 16litre engines) the heaviest oil i've used is 50w engine oil (equivalent to 90 gear oil). I've also had a few T5's and i've found the best shifts came from using TQ95.

If the box has gear rollover noise in nuetral at idle with the DEX III oil in it, then it needs recoing. My box has no noise with DEX III in it.

when i had my au xr8 it had to use dx3 in the books wich i did and never had any problems even when flogging its a*** off around winton raceway i miss that car lol

OK now that geatting a bit cheap on gearbox mass production now there using china for the synchro's LOL


why did they choose to use plastic synchro's and is the some upgrade to ya normal brass ones? or something? Are they better?

The synchro's in an EA box are a brass base with a friction material, similar to clutches in an auto. They are not plastic.

/double post :S

Last edited by forsaken on Mon Aug 06, 2007 12:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

hmmm mine has some noise in neutral but apart from that it doesn't seem to have any other problems (shifts etc), what is likely to break?
do you know roughly how much a reco would be, or am i better off looking for another box in GC and just swapping them... i was worried about it for a bit but now i just turn up the stereo...

well i went from 85/140 gear oil to dex 3 trans fluid because it was a little stiff with the gear change when cold and once i changed to dex3 it had that gear/bearing noise ..untill i just changed back to gear oil but i used penrite manual gear oil 75..
and the box is nice and quiet again..

i know the box has wear but its amazing what a difference it makes going from thick gear oil (smooth but a little hard to shift) to dex3 trand fluid (rattly box at idle with super easy gear change) and to 75 gear oil and ive noticed its still easy to shift gears and the box is quiet now..

im not saying that trans fluid is bad but just take in mind the condition of your box and what oil is already in it before you decide what oil to use??
you may end up doing what i have.
i changed the oil to help with cold shifts to find out that the box isnt as good as i first thought..(the last owner probably put thicker oil to make the box quiet)
so 2 oil changes later to find that my box is quieter and smoother with 75gear oil than trans oil..

Mine has very rattly noise at idle in neutral and it was rebuilt with all new bearings.....

A google search turns up maybe the input shaft is the cause?

That seems strange, i rebuilt an XF T5 a few years back and they were plastic with friction material on them. All genuine parts too

I rebuilt my EA box and it had brass with friction material. That was 12mths ago.

i got the car running other day(running like s**t(bbm getting new one) and went for a drive with dex3 you could hear the bearing and syncros and all when cold(no gear stick boots at all see the road).
thinking of trying some gear oil when i get the car hack up and running healthy)