Thread: External Oil filter on R380 gearbox

if you have the cooler on you can place a filter into that but it wants to be a very free flowing filter....

There is a mesh filter inside the gbox but the rear housing has to be removed to access it.

Thanks, Graeme & Blknight, for your thoughts. Much appreciated.

I'm aware of the mesh/screen inside the gearbox and what a shame it's not easily removed and cleaned as part of a general oil change!

The heart of my question, as BLKnight was leaning towards, is about the possible micron rating or filter bypass pressure-relief setting.

1. Has anyone installed an external filter with or without success?

2. does anyone know the internal plumbing sufficiently well to know if the external oil cooling path was to get blocked what problems would arise, or does the box just 'default' to a condition of having no oil cooler? I suspect there could be a problem as the standard non-cooler arrangement is a pipe on the side of the gearbox not a blanking plate. That is, the pipe suggests, to me at this stage, that flow is always required in and out of the ports.

thanks again for your input.

IIRC the oil is pumped into the mainshaft to lubricate the bearings.

Metal wear particles can be very small, you would need something close to 3 micron absolute to remove them adequately - IMHO that would cause too much pressure drop.

If you really wanted to do this it would be better to use a dedicated pump, not the oil circulation pump.

Change to Redline oil,it's designed for high temps.It worked for me. Pat

Originally Posted by PAT303

Change to Redline oil,it's designed for high temps.It worked for me. Pat

No experience with Redline but Motul 300 gear oil is another good alternative.

I swapped to Syntrans very early with my D2 to overcome 2nd gear shifting problems when cold, rather than have the box rebuilt under warranty and run the risk of the cure being worse than the complaint as discovered by some owners. After 200k+ it's still a bit notchy when cold but works perfectly when hot.

I've always been a little concerned that if the cooler or a pipe cracks (the D2 has a cooler), the box can be pumped dry without any warning. I would have liked a flow meter in the circuit but couldn't overcome the fact that the oil returns directly to the box when cold via a valve in the block to which the pipes attach, bypassing the cooler which would have triggered any low-flow alarm. For quite a while I have carried a non-cooler version of the block in case of a failed cooler or pipe. I also fitted a temperature sensor in the TC (only factory-fitted to some configurations) in case it would help in warning of an overrheated box, as well as an overheated TC.

Originally Posted by Graeme

[snip]

I've always been a little concerned that if the cooler or a pipe cracks (the D2 has a cooler), the box can be pumped dry without any warning. I would have liked a flow meter in the circuit but couldn't overcome the fact that the oil returns directly to the box when cold via a valve in the block to which the pipes attach,
[snip] TC.

Ross/130man had this happen on his Defender, totally destroying his R380, so it's not being totally paranoid, but his is the only one I've heard of doing that too.