I recently bought a very cheap 2007 Saab 95 (£300 cheap!) with a leaky water pump. It's a 150bhp 4 pot diesel with an Aisin 5 speed box.
Service history is non-existent and in the UK gearbox oil changes are almost unheard of. The oil on the gearbox dipstick is black, but not burned so I'm pretty sure it's the original oil with 134,000miles of service over 13 years. I've changed the timing belt, water pump and gave the car a thorough service including new brakes all around.
90% of the time the gearbox changes are quick and smooth with no complaints. However, I've noticed occasional shift flares when the gearbox drops from 4th to 3rd or 5th to 4th during acceleration. Weirdly, it doesn't do it when it's in sport mode. I must admit, I prefer it in sport mode as it locks up the converter as soon as it gets into 2nd and makes the whole experience feel less 'spongey'.
Anyway, next week I'll be doing around 200miles a day and planning on getting out of my Volvo for the week and using the Saab. I'm planning on doing a drain and fill every day as soon as I get home in order to flush out as much of the old oil as possible. I'll be using a universal ATF much like MaxLife. I've got 20 litres of Comma MVATF Plus ready to go!
I'm wondering if it's worth running some kind of solvent through the gearbox for the first drain and fill such as Seafoam to try and help loosen up any varnish or crud they may have built up. Anyone have any experience of this? I have noticed that Seafoam actually do an ATF specific product, does this mean standard Seafoam isn't suitable for ATF?
Any advice appreciated! What would your plan be?
Service history is non-existent and in the UK gearbox oil changes are almost unheard of. The oil on the gearbox dipstick is black, but not burned so I'm pretty sure it's the original oil with 134,000miles of service over 13 years. I've changed the timing belt, water pump and gave the car a thorough service including new brakes all around.
90% of the time the gearbox changes are quick and smooth with no complaints. However, I've noticed occasional shift flares when the gearbox drops from 4th to 3rd or 5th to 4th during acceleration. Weirdly, it doesn't do it when it's in sport mode. I must admit, I prefer it in sport mode as it locks up the converter as soon as it gets into 2nd and makes the whole experience feel less 'spongey'.
Anyway, next week I'll be doing around 200miles a day and planning on getting out of my Volvo for the week and using the Saab. I'm planning on doing a drain and fill every day as soon as I get home in order to flush out as much of the old oil as possible. I'll be using a universal ATF much like MaxLife. I've got 20 litres of Comma MVATF Plus ready to go!
I'm wondering if it's worth running some kind of solvent through the gearbox for the first drain and fill such as Seafoam to try and help loosen up any varnish or crud they may have built up. Anyone have any experience of this? I have noticed that Seafoam actually do an ATF specific product, does this mean standard Seafoam isn't suitable for ATF?
Any advice appreciated! What would your plan be?