If is very easy to get the right tranny fluid...
Get a gallon of Valvoline MAXLIFE (RED JUG) mercon dextron AT fluid. It will work on any car any model..
I get it at Walmart,. I use is on all of my 5 cars...
When I was reading up on this I did notice that lots of older cars used AT fluid in the diff. Most of those articles also mentioned that the fluid should be changed every 30k-60k miles. VW claims their transmission fluid is 'lifetime' and never needs to be changed. A company called ZF actually makes the transmissions, though, and I believe they recommend changing the fluid occasionally although that's a bit nebulous since they don't have much official information out there. Since it's a separate hole to change the diff fluid on the VW I just use gear oil for it since that is what is specified by both VW and ZF. Anyway, I sure learned something from this thread.Goodbar wrote:This isn't new tech, it's what almost every FWD transverse-mounted (which is almost all of them) drivetrain has with an automatic. The B5 Passat is a bit different that most FWD cards in having a longitudinal drivetrain, presumably so that AWD could be offered.
Volvo made that claim when the 850 came out, and even omitted the usual drain and fill ports, IIRC. Naturally, a lot of early 850 transmissions have been replaced, and they later came with the usual ports, drains, and service recommendations.VW claims there transmission fluid is 'lifetime' and never needs to be changed.
"God help us; we're in the hands of engineers"LeftieBiker wrote:Volvo made that claim when the 850 came out, and even omitted the usual drain and fill ports, IIRC. Naturally, a lot of early 850 transmissions have been replaced, and they later came with the usual ports, drains, and service recommendations.VW claims there transmission fluid is 'lifetime' and never needs to be changed.
Once you are sure it's the reduction gears, you could try an additive with extra moly, or whatever they use these days to cushion mating gear surfaces - if you can find one compatible with the recommended (fresh!) oil. The good news is you can likely find a used assembly in good shape. I don't know what the Leaf reduction/differential setup looks like: is the motor mated right to it...?Valdemar wrote:I'm at 156k miles and there's now noise seemingly coming from the gear. It started as a faint gear like clatter at low speeds a while back, but now I can hear it on the freeway when the motor sends torque to the wheels, its kind of an odd noise like a quiet ICE engine running. Gear oil never changed. I'm guessing too late now, huh? Dealer once confirmed the noise was coming from the motor/gear area.
I guess it won't hurt to change it, sounds like an easy enough job. I'm at a point where a need to spend $500 on the car will be enough of a reason to send it to junkers. The dealer couldn't pinpoint the exact location of the noise, but given the nature of it I'd be very surprised if it is not the gear. I have heard noisy diffs, it is similar.LeftieBiker wrote:Once you are sure it's the reduction gears, you could try an additive with extra moly, or whatever they use these days to cushion mating gear surfaces - if you can find one compatible with the recommended (fresh!) oil. The good news is you can likely find a used assembly in good shape. I don't know what the Leaf reduction/differential setup looks like: is the motor mated right to it...?Valdemar wrote:I'm at 156k miles and there's now noise seemingly coming from the gear. It started as a faint gear like clatter at low speeds a while back, but now I can hear it on the freeway when the motor sends torque to the wheels, its kind of an odd noise like a quiet ICE engine running. Gear oil never changed. I'm guessing too late now, huh? Dealer once confirmed the noise was coming from the motor/gear area.