I have a turbo'd hatchback, basically all I do for maintainence is change the oil and oil filter pretty regularly as my oil seems to get black pretty quick, is this normal for synthetic oil? Also I changed the sparkplugs recently and tightened up my couplers. How often should tranny oil be changed? Mine hasn't been changed since I bought the car and I don't know if the previous owner ever did it. The engine has 130k should I change tranny fluid and is there anything else to maintain other than tire pressures? I put in a new fuel filter recently aswell.
Thanks

 

Also, forgot to ask what do most of you run your tire pressure at? I think my tires say max pressure 42psi, i can't remember what I'm running them at. Whats best for dragging?

 

Black is maybe more normal for turbo & its not always BAD. Try getting it analyzed to verify the black is OK. Analysis also can say whether you shouldbe changing oil more or less often.

High temperature in turbo spool bearing can coke the oil making synthetic oilmore important for turbo.

Manual tranny??? Change it & look at the drain plug for crud. Judge from that how often to change it. 20k or 30k miles?

 

also, synthetic oil is flawless, which makes it better and safer for your turbo



black is not necessarily bad, as long as it's not gritty or dirty feeling oil, and as long as it feels normal on your fingers.
you're suppose to change your oil more frequently than normal if you're running a turbo

change that tranny fluid ASAP, it needs it, and you'll notice a difference. I used mobil1 high mileage synthetic 10W-30 oil when i did it and it's great. Get a magnetic drain plug while you're at it, if there are any metal shavings in your tranny, the magnet will hold them on it and keep them out of the gears and such. I think it's 30K miles that you're supposed to change the fluid.

 

I am going to change the tranny oil this week, is there a way to "flush" it or is it alright to just drain it and fill it? I forgot to mention it is a manual transmission with LSD.

Isn't Mobil1 high mileage synthetic 10W-30 oil an engine oil? What would you reccomend for tranny oil? I was told to use honda transmission oil, is there a special type I need?

 

yea you can get it flushed but it costs a fortune to get a place to do it. i don't think it's completely necessary.

and yea, honda says to use their transmission oil, but 10W-30 engine oil is fine.

 

Drain & fill is OK - manual tranny oil most of it drainsout.

Honda MTF is good stuff - Use it. But your owners manual probably calls for 10w-30 engine oil in the manual tranny because they didnt have thier own MTF yet in 1995.

 

I'm going to use Honda MTF. I read on another forum someone said never to use synthetic oil in the tranny, just regular 10W-30. But I'm just going to try the Honda stuff.