[Darsholn]

I discovered that the fluid leak under my car which I thought was an oil leak is actually a transmission oil leak. Looks like it's coming from the axle seal. Is 80w90 GL5 ok for my 5 speed? It's about 7 bucks a bottle while 75w90 is 15 bucks a bottle. 3 bottles of 80w90 plus a fancy ol' funnel would run me about 30 bucks.

To clarify: When I was changing my left front tire, I poked my head under the car and noticed a drip coming from the transmission area every 15 seconds or so. Fluid level is probably pretty low by now. Previous owner mentioned he put a new axle in on the left side before I bought the car

 

[Darsholn]

Well, I went and did it. 2 bottles (I thought they took 3 but I guess not) of Motomaster 80w90. The drain bolt wasn't too bad to get at. Not much came out of the hole. As for the fill bolt, there was no way I was going to get my fat hands onto that from under the hood so I had to undo a few bolts holding the plastic dust shield thing under the car and pull it aside to get at it. The fill plug was on way too bloody tight. I actually started to round off the bolt head a bit before it came loose. I couldn't find a hose to fit my funnel at the shop where I bought the gear oil so I rooted around in my shed and found a hose that fit over the tip of the gear oil bottle. It was a fair bit smaller than the recommended 3/8 inch so filling was a PITA. Took probably 15 minutes to squeeze 2 bottles in. The hose popped off the tip of the bottles a number of times and spilled gear oil in more than one place under the hood. I fastened everything up, washed the dirt and oil off my arms and went for a quick test ride. Shifting seems to be as notchy as before, but at least now I know the transmission isn't low on fluid.

 

[nthorn]

changing to thicker oil is not going to fix your problem. if it is leaking around the axle seal you will need to replace the seals, if not it will just keep leaking out over time when your driving and you will still need to continuously fill it up. Until then just take the fill nut out and check to make sure its full every 500 miles or so to make sure its full and see how bad it is leaking. Best thing to do is replace the seal and fill it up with the what the manual says.