Hello All,
I recently bought my wife a Peugeot 1.6 207 VTI Auto '08 5 door Hatch, with 89k on the clock as her first ever car.
Bought the Haynes car repair manual and it states that the gearbox oil filler plug is on top of the gearbox (and it is, but it requires a "square drive" socket and a very long extension bar to undo it) and going by the manual can be easily accessed by pulling half your car apart.
Had a good look and if you undo one 10mm bolt off the rocker cover that holds that middle part of the air cleaner tube, you can unclip it off the front, lift it upwards and to your right, then lift it out. Go slow as it's sort of on a thread. There is one other small pipe at the back that has to also be unclipped off that centre tube.
Easy access, but if you intend to undo that top oil filler plug, then make sure you clean around it first before undoing it.
To fill it i bought a small 1 litre spring loaded utility pump from the speed shop, and 3 ft extra tubing.
If you only want to check the oil level, then the check oil level plug is, going by the manual, a big two part nut underneath, the center nut being the level check, the big being the drain.
Well mine is not like that at all, mine is again a square drive plug, and that is how you check the oil level, (trickles, all good) but on mine to drain the oil i found a plastic insert up inside the square drive thread, and an "Allen" key will undo that easily to drain the rest of the oil.
Procedure is, you must have the gearbox at operating temperature first, park the car on a level surface (important), and DON'T TURN THE ENGINE OFF, get under the car along with your tools and oil spill tray, and undo carefully either the small center nut or square drive plug, and have your spill tray under it.
That's how you check the gearbox oil level, and if a little bit trickles out and looks clean and does not smell burnt, do the bolt up and forget about it as it's fine. Turn the engine off, be happy, don't worry.
If you need or want to change the oil, leave the drip tray in place, and turn the engine off. About 800ml of oil will come out, and when that stops, get back under the car and undo that outer nut or center insert plug (or wait a long time till the oil cools preferably) and that drains the rest of the oil, and let it drip for at least half an hour.
But if you are only checking oil level and nothing comes out, you need to buy a specific grade fully synthetic gearbox oil. Price of Peugeot oil in Australia is $400 for 5 litres.
I researched it and used a oil called Gulf Western Syntrans multi functional ATF, which exceeds specs at less than half the price.
The change in gearbox attitude was immediate, but it still grabbed a little bit, so i ran it around for a few days.
My issue was that it grabbed in first, and was slippy between second and third gear.
Now be aware that the gearbox holds all up about 5 litres, but you will only be able to at best drain about three litres, the other two being in the torque converter, and you still have two litres of fresh expensive oil left over that you will probably never use, but i had plans for that, so i bought another product called LUCAS Transmission fix which claims that it stops leaks and hard shifting, and it did, but ONLY use HALF of that 700 ml bottle.
In a week, i then dropped 2.5 litres of semi polluted oil (3 litres clean, 2 litres old and dirty) and put my remaining fresh oil in along with the Lucas product, and topped it with the oil i had just taken out. Happy to report more improvement.
For your information, if you place the new oil container into a bucket of boiling water for ten minutes, it warms that oil and it makes it much easier to pump in.
Steve from Mackay.
October 2013
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