Thread: R380 oil change interval - syntrans

I just walked back inside after changing the oil in my LT77. It had syntrans in before and it does again now.

I haven't changed it in nearly 2.5 years . It was much easier to do when I had access to a hoist!

It really should have been dropped out a bit earlier, there was a noticeable metallic sheen to the oil, which I am guessing is bits of gearbox internals.

I had noticed the synchros getting a bit lazy (notchy shift), maybe this will help things along.

BTW I think Land Rover recommend 40 000km intervals.

I guess 40,000 would be reasonable. However the only thing I was thinking is that LR based that on using ATF. Syntrans being a fully synthetic MTF you would think would outlast the ATF many times. Although, it remains to be seen whether the contaminant build up in the syntrans would be less, as synchros would still wear at the same rate one would presume...

That is still the LR recommendation even with synthetic oil, IIRC. I know when I worked at the dealer we did them at 40 000km when using first MTF94, then Syntrans.

it depends how you work the gearbox???

If you do a lot of heavy towing i would recomend doing every 40,000.
But if it no work then you could strecth it to 60,000 - 80,000, also depends on climate.

Food for thought

carla

try 20,000km.

The R380 has a very limited oil capacity, you can go 40,000km on, say, Syntrax or Torco RTF in a Patrol 'box but they have 4 litres of fluid, an R380 is lucky to get 2.5l in at a change.

As Jon noted, I always found the synchro action going to hell at around the 20,000km mark too, the blend was starting to shear which says to me it's use time is up.

400,000km is doable on a big rig, but their gearbox sump capacity is upwards of 10-14 litres and often filtered too.