Auto gearbox oil

[T4M]

It's the 6 speed box i have and VX quoted me £90 parts and labour

[gtr1000]

It's the 6 speed box i have and VX quoted me £90 parts and labour

Just looked in Haynes and they say use VX oil part no. 93 165 147 for the AF40 box and with a re-fill of 3.0 to 3.5 litres.

Parts for Saabs don't have the oil though.

[Readster]

It may not be an idea to change the auto box oil. I have heard horror stories of air locks etc...
If the oil is clean & smelts ok why risk it?
Just a thought
Cheers
John

[Lao]

The "Owner's manual" states that AF40's oil should be changed every 60.000 Km.

[fikse]

I have just used alot of time getting correct info about my autogearbox. I have the DTi, so a Aisin Warner AF33 5-speed, a older variant of the gearbox you have. As you might already know, this is a gearbox made in Japan, by Aisin Warner, who is only making OEM gearboxes, for GM, Toyota, Volvo, Saab, Ford, Mazda, and many others. The reputation says both AF33 and 40 is rock solid gearboxes, BUT is sensitive for oil change and quality, and several brands (like GM) wants you to use the wrong oil! It does excists a explanation to why i.e. GM do this, and they don't do it to fool you... This gearboxes do not have traditional filters, so if you use a oil that sludge (eventually all oil will sludge in the end, depending on quality/spec/driving conditions), this will be distributed to all internal components, making the oil distribution slower and raising the temperature. This kills your gearbox.
Also, if you use oil who is outside spec (like very expensive oils with extreme antifriction properties, or opposite, oils with to much friction), the clutch material will wear too fast, either because of slippery behavior or opposite.

So; my mainpoint is: Use the absolutely correct oil, and if you care about your gearbox, flush the oil, not only change the 3-3.5 litres you can tap out, and do this more often than GM says. I can guarantee you this is correct information for your gearbox. I have got confirmation both from autogear specialists, from mecanics at both Opel and Saab, and also from oil chemists.

These gearboxes should have a JWS3309 / Toyota T-IV spec oil. You can find this spec oil, who also is DexronIII, as GM says you should use. The DexronVI, as your GM dealer will sell you these days, is NOT the best you can put into your gearbox. It is too slippery. Both DexronIII and VI will not kill your gearbox instantly, not at all. But I assume you want the absolutely longest possible life, OK?
So, get yourself some JWS3309 oil, and change ALL oil with a flush. A autogearbox garage will have some money for this (where I live, £250 exluded oil), and they use approx 20litres (!) to do this. Well, it is a easier and cheaper way, if you can do it by yourself. This is the short version:

• Tap out oil from sump (3-3.5 litres). Put back drainbolt.
• Disconnect cooler pipes/tubes from gearbox to radiator. On mine this is one 10mm nut on a flange on the gearbox, holding both pipes, maybe the same on yours. Drain out all oil. Do not remount pipes.
• Fill with 4 litres oil
• Start enigine, gear in P
• The gear will now spit out oil from one of the holes for the cooler pipes.
• Stop the engine immedeatly it only spits oil (air in oil). You need a person to stop the engine for you, this is going fast!
• Fill with new 4 litres, start, stop when air is coming..
• repeat until clear, red, thin oil is geeting out. I needed 3 times / 12-13 litres.
• Now you have changed all oil in both sump and converter.
• Put back cooler pipes. Take care about the special gasket, leave no dirt between pipes and gasket.
• Adjust oil level according to spec (it is a procedure, I only know the AF33).

My local Opel garage, who has been very helpful with me to learn this, has told me that previous they had to change gearbox approx every 200.000KMs on the local taxis here. This when they followed procedure that GM says. When they started to flush (they use the simple metod as above) at least every 50.000KMs, they so far has not changed one single gearbox on any taxi. One taxi (CDTI) have still same gearbox after 800.000KMs, and the owner of this has every 50.000 got it flushed by a autogear garage.
Here a complete change of a new gearbox costs hefty £9.000, so this is a cheap insurance

[T4M]

I've got it booked into my local VX dealer to get done in january - i'd rather get the pro's to do it incase anything goes wrong

[Lao]

I have just used alot of time getting correct info about my autogearbox. ... this is a cheap insurance

Very nice info you posted m8. All I can say in my behalf is thank you for sharing.

I got the car booked for changing the valve body on Monday.

[Readster]

I have just used alot of time getting correct info about my autogearbox. I have the DTi, so a Aisin Warner AF33 5-speed, a older variant of the gearbox you have. As you might already know, this is a gearbox made in Japan, by Aisin Warner, who is only making OEM gearboxes, for GM, Toyota, Volvo, Saab, Ford, Mazda, and many others. The reputation says both AF33 and 40 is rock solid gearboxes, BUT is sensitive for oil change and quality, and several brands (like GM) wants you to use the wrong oil! It does excists a explanation to why i.e. GM do this, and they don't do it to fool you... This gearboxes do not have traditional filters, so if you use a oil that sludge (eventually all oil will sludge in the end, depending on quality/spec/driving conditions), this will be distributed to all internal components, making the oil distribution slower and raising the temperature. This kills your gearbox.
Also, if you use oil who is outside spec (like very expensive oils with extreme antifriction properties, or opposite, oils with to much friction), the clutch material will wear too fast, either because of slippery behavior or opposite.

So; my mainpoint is: Use the absolutely correct oil, and if you care about your gearbox, flush the oil, not only change the 3-3.5 litres you can tap out, and do this more often than GM says. I can guarantee you this is correct information for your gearbox. I have got confirmation both from autogear specialists, from mecanics at both Opel and Saab, and also from oil chemists.

These gearboxes should have a JWS3309 / Toyota T-IV spec oil. You can find this spec oil, who also is DexronIII, as GM says you should use. The DexronVI, as your GM dealer will sell you these days, is NOT the best you can put into your gearbox. It is too slippery. Both DexronIII and VI will not kill your gearbox instantly, not at all. But I assume you want the absolutely longest possible life, OK?
So, get yourself some JWS3309 oil, and change ALL oil with a flush. A autogearbox garage will have some money for this (where I live, £250 exluded oil), and they use approx 20litres (!) to do this. Well, it is a easier and cheaper way, if you can do it by yourself. This is the short version:

• Tap out oil from sump (3-3.5 litres). Put back drainbolt.
• Disconnect cooler pipes/tubes from gearbox to radiator. On mine this is one 10mm nut on a flange on the gearbox, holding both pipes, maybe the same on yours. Drain out all oil. Do not remount pipes.
• Fill with 4 litres oil
• Start enigine, gear in P
• The gear will now spit out oil from one of the holes for the cooler pipes.
• Stop the engine immedeatly it only spits oil (air in oil). You need a person to stop the engine for you, this is going fast!
• Fill with new 4 litres, start, stop when air is coming..
• repeat until clear, red, thin oil is geeting out. I needed 3 times / 12-13 litres.
• Now you have changed all oil in both sump and converter.
• Put back cooler pipes. Take care about the special gasket, leave no dirt between pipes and gasket.
• Adjust oil level according to spec (it is a procedure, I only know the AF33).

My local Opel garage, who has been very helpful with me to learn this, has told me that previous they had to change gearbox approx every 200.000KMs on the local taxis here. This when they followed procedure that GM says. When they started to flush (they use the simple metod as above) at least every 50.000KMs, they so far has not changed one single gearbox on any taxi. One taxi (CDTI) have still same gearbox after 800.000KMs, and the owner of this has every 50.000 got it flushed by a autogear garage.
Here a complete change of a new gearbox costs hefty £9.000, so this is a cheap insurance

Top post matey,
thanks for sharing it with us.
Cheers
John

[fikse]

I hope my guide will help someone here Im sorry my camera is almost broke, so pretty unable to make a How2. Maybe later... Anyway you can also look at this video. Not related to Vectra, but a hint to how 2. I belive its very difficult to fill oil as fast as he does, at least on my AF33 box the filler hole is to narrow to accept a litre oil every 20 seconds, so I have to stop the engine between the fills.

When I bought the Vectra in April, maintaining autogearboxes was a completely unknown field for me, and niggardly as I am, I want to DIY as much as possible. Headed to US forums, since I belive US mecanics should be the No1 source for autogear maintanance. Like Bob-is-the-oil-guy, and some others.

The oil I used to flush with, is Fuchs Titan ATF 4400. This is both JWS3309, Toyota T-IV and Dexron III sertified, so anyway you cannot go wrong with this one, you both satisfy GM and Aisin Warner
I had already changed oil (not flushed thou) 4 times (13 litres) this summer, but I used some Dexron III and some OEM GM Dexron VI, but the gearbox was somewhat slippery and not perfect shifting. Not hard shifting, just not perfect. But the oil looked, smelled and felt completely OK, so I belive the "bad behaviour" was due the "wrong" oil, and this has been confirmed as normal behaviour on these gearboxes when using GM DexronIII or VI. Now it is approx 2 weeks since I flushed, and the gearbox feels like new! The shift is as smooth as possible, just as brand new. And the slippering is completely gone. Actually the RPM is reduced approx 300RPM when going gentle uphill. Couldn't be better

[Ruperts Trooper]

The Fuchs Titan ATF 4400 is higher spec than Dexron III but not a problem as it's backward compatible to Dexron I, II and III as well as their variations.

It also meets Subaru's requirements - I recently used it for a drain/refill and have got almost identical improvements to Fikse - it's good stuff.