Gearbox whine and green oil

[Jono24]

Hi Guys,

See the image below of fresh oil dropped from my gearbox in my BE5D.

My gearbox in my BE5D has been making a subtle whining sound above 80 km/h. I checked the gearbox oil and noticed it was a green colour (almost like coolant). I went and got some Castrol Multitrax (now named Castrol Universal 80W-90) and gave it an oil change.

I tipped the whole 4 litres in without thinking and then found I only needed 3.5 litres. The photo above is the ~0.5 litres I drained of the new oil.

The magnetic sump plug had a little bit of metal on it but nothing much.

Are these gearboxes water cooled? this may be a dumb question but it looks like coolant to me, and after an oil change (30 mins prior to the photo above) I would have thought I would have drained *most* of the crap that was in the last oil change.

I haven't done any work to this car yet (the fresh engine is on the conservatory floor awaiting head gaskets and a new turbo), apart from an engine oil change and now the gearbox oil. Any ideas as to what I'm looking at?

[Andy_Mac]

Manual transmission? Have you put your finger in the new and old oil? There's no way of confusing coolant and oil by touch, viscosity is hugely different between the two.

[Jono24]

Yes, manual transmission. I'll have to go back and double check, they didn't seem very different when draining the old stuff.

Do any manufacturers provide coloured gearbox oil? I don't understand the green.

[lachlan]

Did it have redline shock proof in it ?kinda looks like that blue mixed with a darker oil

[loner]

yeah looks like redline oil. the noise could be a bearing on the way out.

[Jono24]

I'm pretty sure a previous owner put redline in it. Hopefully that's what it is. The pic is of new castrol universal and what remained of the previous redline.

Is it worth stripping down to replace bearings or better off to just get another second hand box?

[loner]

I wouldn't worry about it if it's just a slight whine... are there any other noises when you get off the throttle?

Could it be just normal noise that you didn't notice before? The gearbox will always whine, it's just that usually there

is enough sound deadening on the transmission tunnel that you don't hear it.

[Marky]

As said that just looks like redline oil. Which for what it's worth does a great job of hiding whines but is a bit sh!t when cold, it is good stuff but has its' downsides.

If it were me, I'd just flick the box while it's out and get something with shorter legs anyway, I think this one has the longest across the board of all the 5sp boxes?

[Jono24]

Googled some images and it does match the redline shockproof. I've read it is pretty awesome but also has a shorter lifespan requiring more frequent changes.

Tempted to run it till it dies and go to a 6 spd then. I'm pretty sure the current gearbox won't like the new engine if it is already dying.

Could the whine be the centre diff? It doesn't sound the same as my last dying centre diff, but replacing the centre diff is a quick and relatively cheap repair.