Topping Up Gearbox Oil on Micra K11

1. How do I check & top the gearbox oil on my Micra K11c. Its a 1998 Micra 1.3L Manual, and what tools would I need?

2. What Gearbox oil should I use?
 

pollyp

Club Member
-park on flat floor
-remove airbox to access the speedo gear
-unscrew the speedo cable from the speedo pinion unit
-remove 10mm bolt holding speedo unit onto gearbox
-rotate the speedo unit anticlock till you can grab the lip then pull up & turn

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-stick a rod down the hole to measure the level

haynes says the RS5F41A 1.0L box should be 28-38mm high while others should be 45-54mm high. I just fill it till the speedo pinions fully submerged when inserted. bout 3-3.5L

gearbox oil is SAE 80. i used to use castrol 70/80 manual gearbox oil from halfords in my 1.3L box twas fine.
 
This is going to sound a bit stupid, but where is the airbox? Where the filter is above the engine? How hard is it to remove?
 

pollyp

Club Member
the big black plastic rectangular box behind the top of the engine which holds the filter.

easy to remove.
unclip the inlet pipe from the side of the airbox and seperate.
remove the 10mm bolt holding it to the engine bracket.
there's a small breather L-pipe at corner of airbox thats connected to the engine cover, keep it loose with some mole grips.
loosen the jubilee clip under the airbox thats holding it to the throttle body accessible from the RH of the bay.
gently pull & rock the box up off the TB taking care not to break the L-pipe off the box.
slip the airbox and its L-pipe off the engine cover breather pipe.
 
The air box in other terms is the air filter the large rectangular plastic box at the very top with the tube leading to the battery this is removed by a flathead screwdriver underneath the rectangular box on the left hand side is a large round jubilie clip that holds it on loosen this and also loosen the smaller tube leading to the engine pinch clip with some pliers. ease the box off by small rotations left and right whilst pulling. now this is important do not drain the oil until you have checked that polly p's instructions have gone well as the nut inside can rust and sieze if you dont check this you wont get any oil back into the gear box happened to me and i had to get the gearbox removed to free it and the garage bill was 270.00 yeah ouch. your gearbox oil by the way doesnt run out like engine oil and is good for at least 100 thousand miles so i wouldnt worry to much about it unless your having definite issues with gear box wine or really dodgy gear shifts. my lil car only has 67k on the clock and the oil i took out was relatively clean.
 

Seb_

Give me some frogs.
Site Supporter
My car is a 97' 1.3L is this the gearbox drain plug right:
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Does anyone have a picture of the filler plug?
 

pollyp

Club Member
yep that 1/2" plugs the drain. i fill it via the speedo hole at the back of gearbox. the 3/8 plug at the front of gearbox is threadlocked on and was impossible to remove on both gearboxes.
 
Funny enough, when I got the box first time I undone it and filled it no problem. Didn't use any thread lock and the second time impossible to undo so I used the speedo.
 
Topped up my gearbox oil today after changing nearside drive shaft. Had to use a big allen key with a a big pole to unscrew the filler plug. Was almost as hard as the axle nut which needed someone on the brakes, a breaker bar and a 3 foot pole. Nearly broke my back.
 
Reviving this thread due to some questions,

First, I recently changed the gearbox oil on my daily -99 K11 1.0L manual. I used 3.0 liter 80W-90 oil grade. The procedure went well.

Now, I'm gonna to the same on a -02 K11c 1.4L manual. Here are the questions:
-How much oil am I going to use? I'm asking because my 1.0L manual stated 2L, but the real amount was 3L!!
-Is the filling up part the same? Through the speedo?
-Manual says GL-5! Nissan Oil, but everyone on the forums seem to say GL-4 is the way forward?

I will edit this post for future references
 
I have a -99 1.0 Micra, how often do you need to change the manual transmission oil?
Looking in my servicebook at point 40 it says change oil in M/T and dividing gear and that's at an interval of 15,000 km or a year.
That can't be right, can it?
 
According the Haynes manual they recommend you check the level every 18000 miles or every year. However its probably something which is overlooked unless a gearbox problem occurs. !!!
 
<clears out tumbleweed>
Can someone check that I'm pulling on the right place? This frigging thing turns, but no amount of pulling frees it from it's hole. Ideas?
 

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facelifts have a filling plug/bung on the front spinal
F***! So what am I pulling on?! :p

The funny part is, I've grabbed the haynes manual and just saw that. Now trying to figure out where the friggin filling plug is. IT's getting dark, so may need to continue tomorrow.
 

wehey

Ex. Club Member
F***! So what am I pulling on?! :p

The funny part is, I've grabbed the haynes manual and just saw that. Now trying to figure out where the friggin filling plug is. IT's getting dark, so may need to continue tomorrow.
The thing yiur pulling on is the speedo drive.
Can be a bit tricky to remove and you can top up the oil thro this hole
 
Thanks. The haynes manual suggests I fill from the front filler hole until the oil overflows, which I can do if I can find the front filler hole. Just popped out, but it's way too dark to see anything to will do tomorrow.

Any chance I damaged something by turning the speedo drive three times around?

M
 

pollyp

Club Member
u turn & pull via the exposed bolt hole lip and should just slip out

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sounds like the o-ring is abit stuck to the bore, give a jiggle n pull to loosen the seal but careful u don't snap the lip off
 
Amazing, thanks! Looks like turning it around wont cause any issues :)

Will find the front filler bung tomorrow afternoon... for now I'll just keep looking for a picture of it online :p

M.
 
Finally had a chance to have a look at this - I'm guessing the front filler hole is number 2 on this picture, right? What's number-1? (picture take from the front of the car, top, looking down behind the radiator)
 

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frank

Club Member
#1 is the crank sensor, and #2 is a bellhousing bolt, is there no plug with a square or hex hole in the middle ?
 
Think I found it... it's this red rectangle, right?

(also, just noticed that there appears to be a bolt missing and something loose - blue rectangle, but can't get the angle right to see what...)
 

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Wahey! Thank you :)

That's a pain to find, due to the angle you can't see it from the top (and it's part concealed by my sump-guard mounting bracket from the bottom.

Now to figure out that that loose metal sheet it... but first I need bacon...

Thank you!
 
Ugh. That f***ing plug is stuck. I can't, for the best of my strength, unscrew it with an allen key. Sprayed with WD40... now going to listen to the Dr Who concert, then will try again this evening. Fingers crossed.
 
Finally got it out. Wahey. Gearbox topped up, but that wasn't what was causing the sound.

When "wiggling" (technical term :p) the gear lever left to right (in neutral, engine off) there's a metallic sound coming from under the car. Think it's the link between the gearstick and gear lever... but no idea how to fix it...
 

John_D

Club Member
Radio Code Guru
Finally got it out. Wahey. Gearbox topped up, but that wasn't what was causing the sound.

When "wiggling" (technical term :p) the gear lever left to right (in neutral, engine off) there's a metallic sound coming from under the car. Think it's the link between the gearstick and gear lever... but no idea how to fix it...
The gear linkage may well be hitting a loose aluminium heat shield in the tunnel above the exhaust, crawl under and have a look......
 
Evening all .... ever wish you not started a job? Right well I drained all the oil out, it was suprisingly clean.

Followed PollyP's excellent instructions and went a dream.... until .....trying to get the speedo unit out!!!

Have removed the 10mm, have unscrewed the cable and the cable comes out absolutely fine. But how on earth to pull the speedo out? Have pulled, have tried gently levering up with a screwdriver but is no gap or edge to work against. Even tried mole grips carefully round the thread section .... does not budget a fraction.

Tried put the cable back on and pull .... again nothing. Any ideas anyone? Stuck now with an empty gearbox and no way to get the new in.

And this one is a 95, a MK1 or pre-facelift ..... maybe I've been reading too much (must have walked a mile from the garage to laptop today) but cannot 100% be sure if there is (or is not) a filling point. And certainly can't find it if there is one.

Interestingly there is a yellow sticker on the gearbox that points to the speedo cable point and mentions high and low positions .

Help on either a) how to get the speedo assembly out or b) where the fill point is would be really really really welcome .... had a great run this week working on the old girl but made the mistake leaving this one to last. Grrrrrr.....
 

frank

Club Member
you can usually break it free by turning the bit where the bolt goes, gentle tapping from the side
or you could fill it via the driveshaft, i used to jack the wheel about 2 ft off the ground and no oil ran out
 
Hi Frank, appreciate the quick reply .... driving me mad this one.

Ok I've been approaching wrongly I think. So if I loosen the 10mm bolt so that it comes out of the gearbox housing but not out of the 10mm hole and then use that to turn anti clockwise .... that sounds like a plan .... one I didn't try yet. So essentially using the screw as the lever, gently?

Going back in after a cup of tea and give that a go! Many thanks for that .... I feel less on me own now! :)
 

frank

Club Member
there is a paper gasket under that housing mate, and you have to break the seal that has accumulated over the years
 
there is a paper gasket under that housing mate, and you have to break the seal that has accumulated over the years

All I can say Frank is 'you the man'!!!! ..... knocked the 10mm projection round the left and sure enough it coughed and moved!!! Brilliant.

However in my enthusiam, I then levered the projection and .... snap! But least the speedo came out with the aid of a carefully set, set of mole grips. 3 ltrs later, happiness .... and amazingly the casting snapped in such a manner that the shoulder was at the top .... so it fitted back together and tightend as well as is needed. Lucky break.

So the easy reassemble .... er ...not quite ... the bloody inlet or breather to the air box broke. I think it was broken and position fitted back together but I'm not sure. It is a clean break so maybe will glue up and then tape around. A minor frustration and a lot easier than the speedo.

Anyway a clean gearbox. Strangely the stuff that came out was not terrible. But it's something I've been meaning to do for years ... today was the day! Thanks for the steer and the confidence boost Frank .... it came at the right time. Cheers
 
Just took the car out after it's annual shake down and after having changed the gearbox oil. Amazing .... the gearbox oil change makes the driving feel hugely improved.....less whine and feels much easier all round .... quite suprised what a difference it made.

Changed it for 75/90 and fully synthetic .... Molyliquid think it was.

Just some feedback .... I didn't expect much by way of improvement but was well worth doing. Don't know if it was low and when drained it was dark but not terrible. But an exercise worth doing I think.
 
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