Gear Oil Smell in Interior?
02-01-2007, 07:34 PM
#1
road warrior
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Gear Oil Smell in Interior?
My car's interior smells slightly of gear oil and it seems to be coming through the leather shift boot. If you take off the gear **** and pull up the leather boot and smell the hole, you can smell the gear oil. I've changed my transmission oil twice and both times made sure to only refill it by 1.8 quarts. Any idea about the cause?
Last edited by LionZoo; 02-01-2007 at 11:37 PM.
02-01-2007, 10:03 PM
#4
Its odd that this should come up.
I have the same issue, but only in relatively hard left turns.
The smell is definitely tranny lube and it is coming through the shifter.
I've checked the rubber boot and such and there is absolutely no leak - of air or oil.
This started immediately after changing my tranny lube last summer and it persists.
When I started poking around a few month ago to solve this, I drained the oil out and refilled it, metering the exact amount of indicated oil and through the fill port (normally, I'd pour the oil down the shift turret).
That made no difference. Adding a layer of gasket compound to the base of the sealing boot inside the shifter did nothing as well.
I only smell it on left turns - especially at high speeds.
I'm stumped.
I have the same issue, but only in relatively hard left turns.
The smell is definitely tranny lube and it is coming through the shifter.
I've checked the rubber boot and such and there is absolutely no leak - of air or oil.
This started immediately after changing my tranny lube last summer and it persists.
When I started poking around a few month ago to solve this, I drained the oil out and refilled it, metering the exact amount of indicated oil and through the fill port (normally, I'd pour the oil down the shift turret).
That made no difference. Adding a layer of gasket compound to the base of the sealing boot inside the shifter did nothing as well.
I only smell it on left turns - especially at high speeds.
I'm stumped.
02-01-2007, 10:15 PM
#5
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I have also noticed the smell ever since i first changed out my tranny fluid with red line....first i thought i had overfilled (which i may have), but never took off the leather shift boot to find where the smell was coming from. Recently I changed to RP and filled the tranny with less fluid, but the smell of RP is still faintly there. When I get the AF short shifter, Ill have to take a look...
02-03-2007, 01:11 AM
#6
ok so i went investigating today. took the rubber boot covers off and noticed oil under it. i'm not positive, but i didn't remember finding oil there before i changed my tranny fluid. wondering is the oil spooling up more so now. looked to see if i had any part that would let air or oil out, but i don't see anywhere that would prove to be a problem.
so here's a question. did any of you add the gear oil through the shifter at one time or another?
so here's a question. did any of you add the gear oil through the shifter at one time or another?
02-03-2007, 07:53 AM
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Originally Posted by NgoRX8
yea i read that you did. wondering if everyone else having this oil smell did so as well. maybe a reason, possibly?
02-03-2007, 08:25 AM
#10
I had the exact same problem with my car and I did two things to make the best effort at solving the problem. First, I removed the rubber inner shifter boot and applied a bit of red tacky spray gasket sealer to the seal after cleaning the body where the gasket secures. Second, since I swapped the factory clutch back in for a while, I had a chance to make sure that the vent was clean. I can't remember particulars on the vent matter, but both seem to have solved the problem and my interior once again smells like new leather.
02-03-2007, 02:00 PM
#12
MM, I looked at the cd service manual to refresh my memory but a vent wasn't illustrated nor listed. Although there is a vent for the bellhousing/clutch ***'y heat, I am wondering if I might be thinking of that '85 RX-7 that I repaired last spring. However, I seem to remember thinking it strange that there would be a vent of some kind in the bellhousing area for gear case fumes(?) whichever transmission I am thinking of. Might I be mistaken regarding the 8's trans? I looked at both the R-15 and Y-16 diagrams. I would imagine that there has to be a vent or else the seals would be stressed every time the transmission warmed up. Maybe I should not have mentioned it with so few details in my memory.....sorry.
02-03-2007, 02:10 PM
#13
No, I'm sure there must be a vent somewhere.
I just haven't spotted it since I've never had the tranny out from under the car (I just push it out of the way on swaps).
As you mention, it isn't noted in the manual.
If you can think where it might be exactly, I'll go poking around.
I just haven't spotted it since I've never had the tranny out from under the car (I just push it out of the way on swaps).
As you mention, it isn't noted in the manual.
If you can think where it might be exactly, I'll go poking around.
02-03-2007, 02:22 PM
#14
I tend to think that it was near the top-center of the case in the bellhousing side, but at the same time that seems ridiculous to me. More likely, it would be in the same area on the outside of the case. The reason I am thinking all of this is because I cleaned the clutch disc dust out from the bellhousing and in doing so saw the vent. Then I realized that what might have been causing the smell was the RP fluid clinging to the vent area(or some stupid theory like that) and causing the odor. Whatever the objective truth was/is, when I did both the things I mentioned above, a day or two later the odor was gone. Of course, I am the forum's seeming King of changing more than one thing at a time and then making the mental work more difficult for myself to figure out what really happened. Another one of those "can't hurt to do it" ideas that came along while I was concentrating on something else. That's how I temporarily messed up my nitrous operation for a while but at least we now know just how sensitive the MAF is.....
Last edited by Charles R. Hill; 02-03-2007 at 02:24 PM.
02-04-2007, 12:20 AM
#15
Originally Posted by Charles R. Hill
Of course, I am the forum's seeming King of changing more than one thing at a time and then making the mental work more difficult for myself to figure out what really happened.
Do I really need to kneel?
MazdaManiac: "Oh look! Bright, shiny objects!"
[[sound and smell of important stuff, burning]]
02-04-2007, 02:42 PM
#19
Thanks, Lion. I have another thought that I want to run past you guys but it is only speculative since I haven't yet opened up the RX-8 transmission to see if what I suspect might be true. Wanna hear it?
02-04-2007, 03:08 PM
#21
The OEM manufacturers are using thinner and thinner lubes to help increase fuel economy whether in the engines, transmissions, or differentials. As such, and this is where I theorize, the manner in which the lubes are delivered to the friction zones have to be engineered in a different way than they used to be. In the transmissions, when the fluids were heavier or of the clinging variety from the factory the interior of the transmission case was not a big deal because the lube easily stuck to the gear and synchro faces. Now, with the fluids rinsing off the gears/synchros quicker, the factory has to design faces and channels inside the gear case that helps hold the fluids where they need to be in order to assure proper lubrication. If we switch our fluids to the clinging types like RP and RL the fluids and channels are working together in a way that never allows the fluid to leave the gear faces except by force from the fluid pumping around. In other words, I think there may be over-collection of the fluid in the vent area due to lack of circulation and that is causing either a little bit of fluid to huff out the vent or more vapors than expected are huffing out the vent and into the car. Again, this is only speculation and it is based on my memory of cleaning the vent, sealing the inner boot, and swapping back to factory-type fluids, that led to elimination of that icky odor in my interior.
02-04-2007, 08:30 PM
#23
Originally Posted by Easy_E1
Spit it out. I want to hear so MazdaManiac will stop talking about it every time I see him,,JK
Originally Posted by hogcar
The vent is to the right and around 6 inches forward of the shifter.
Originally Posted by Easy_E1
Spit it out. I want to hear so MazdaManiac will stop talking about it every time I see him,,JK
02-04-2007, 08:32 PM
#24
Originally Posted by Charles R. Hill
The OEM manufacturers ...odor in my interior.
Originally Posted by Easy_E1
Spit it out. I want to hear so MazdaManiac will stop talking about it every time I see him,,JK