1985 Jetta transmission fill and drain holes

[dyoungen]

I would like to drain and fill the transmission on my Jetta but am having a time finding where the drain and fill holes are. I have the "official factory repair manual" grey in color. On page 34.10 it shows where the oil comes out when you check it and where you add oil but that picture and my Jetta don't look the same. I did find a hole on the drivers side of the transmission you can only see if you are on your back looking up in front of the front tire. Would that be the checking/adjusting hole? That would be almost to low to check the level of the fluid. Also it is a 5 speed.

[Rabbit on Roids]

thats where you fill it up. not where you top it off. the plug on the bottom, loks like a reverse 17mm bolt head, well, actually they both do. but those are the ones you want. to drain it, you take the bottom plug out. to fill it up, you take the speedo cable out and stick a funnel in that hole and fill it till oil comes out the side hole, then add another half litre of oil. with the side plug in of course.

[SolarSteve]

I'm looking to change the oil out of mine as well (its a 1991 1.6 N/A).  What oil do you guys reccommend refilling it with?

Thanks

[rabbitman]

I'm looking to change the oil out of mine as well (its a 1991 1.6 N/A).  What oil do you guys reccommend refilling it with?

Thanks

Not sure on the oil but if your's is the original tranny then it doesn't need the extra haft liter of oil.

Whatever tranny you have, it holds 2.1qts or 2 liters of oil. http://www.brokevw.com/020oil.html good info.

[Rabbit on Roids]

I'm looking to change the oil out of mine as well (its a 1991 1.6 N/A).  What oil do you guys reccommend refilling it with?

Thanks

Not sure on the oil but if your's is the original tranny then it doesn't need the extra haft liter of oil.

Whatever tranny you have, it holds 2.1qts or 2 liters of oil. http://www.brokevw.com/020oil.html good info.

only older trannies need the extra half litre?

[Dakotakid]

I believe it is the transmissions which had/has the "centered" fill-hole (look at Broke's site). Eventually, VW raised the add plug somewhat (like my gas AUG trans) and that allowed greater capacity without running out of the fill-hole.

What I refer to as "centered" is like the ACH, AGS, ACN, FF, and FO's which I have.

[SolarSteve]

The previous owner of my car "believes" that the guy who owned it before him replaced the tranny.  I don't know if it was the same type installed as what was removed or not.  I know where the code is located, and I will post the code, but the PO ran over some scrap metal one day and it slammed right into the surface with the code, so most of it is "removed". 

He also bent the frame memeber pretty good and tore a hole in the oil pan when he hit the metal.  Fortuantely he killed the engine right away and prevented problems there.  He picked up a new frame memeber and gave it to me when I bought it, but I never installed it...

[rabbitman]

only older trannies need the extra half litre?

Yup, like Dakotakid said, look at the second from last pic here it explains it good. http://www.brokevw.com/020oil.html

[Rabbit on Roids]

yes it does. another small difference that i would have NEVER caught.

[dyoungen]

Rabbitman: Thanks a bunch for the pictures, they were a life saver. Now for the good/bad news. I drained the tranny after taking it for a drive to warm up. It's about 30 degrees here so I needed all the help I could get. When it finished dripping I poured it into a Delo 400 bottle so I could see how low it was. The PO must have thought if a little was good, add more because there was almost 3 quarts that drained out. There aren't any massive leaks, just the usual road grime under the Jetta. Did I luck out or do I need to keep an eye on anything? I took it for a short drive, about 5 miles and it seemed fine. The test will come tonight when I drive home from work with the temprature in the 30's and everything cold. That's when the transmission seemed to not want to move between gears, especially 1st to second.

[dyoungen]

Well, changing the transmission fluid helped big time.  It used to be that when I started driving off with everything cold it was alomost impossible to find 2nd gear and when I was slowing to stop, I had to keep the tranny in 3rd till I came to a complete stop. Now I can find 2nd with no problem and downshifting is a breeze.

[SolarSteve]

Well, changing the transmission fluid helped big time.  It used to be that when I started driving off with everything cold it was alomost impossible to find 2nd gear and when I was slowing to stop, I had to keep the tranny in 3rd till I came to a complete stop. Now I can find 2nd with no problem and downshifting is a breeze.

What brand and grade fluid did you use?

Thanks

[dyoungen]

I can't remember where I saw it but I think I remember the manual calls for 75-90 gear lube. What I put in mine is "Synthetic Blend 75W-90 gear lubricant". Bought at Wal Mart.

[SolarSteve]

My Bentley calls for 80W90, but I believe the tranny is an older one, so I went with the BrokeVW sites advice of 75W90.

While I had it draining, I shifted it into each gear a number of times an a bunch more crappy looking oil came out.  I also flushed it a bit with some extra lube while shifting as well.

Only problem, though, is the bolt that holds the speedo cable on mine is broke.  The bolt has such a coarse thread pitch on it, it looks like a lag bolt..

I have a spare tranyy out of a 1990 golf 1.6 N/a, but that bolt is a regular machine bolt.  Anyway, I stuffed it all back in the tranny and its working and shifting nicely.  I am going to try to tap the hole to a larger bolt size to secure it properly.