I bought the car in the summer the gear box was smooth, thought I was doing the right thing and had the oil changed as Mazda spec - but it immediately went very notchy when cold but fine when hot.
After reading a lot on the opie oils website recommended by Nickd, I now have replacement oil that should do the trick.
Question is should I put oil in the “turret” / gearshift when doing the oil change? Mazda doesn’t mention it in the servicing requirements and the Haynes manual only states put oil in when rebuilding the gearbox.Â
Are the turret and gearbox separate or does the turret share the same oil as the main box, or is the turret oiled for life - unless gearbox rebuilt?
Given I did not touch the turret previously I am guessing that I do not need to do anything.
I would take a peek in there to see if there is any in. Mine was empty and put a small amount in.Â
The NC 6 speed does indeed have turret oil, not a great deal on that on the forums and obviously doesn’t share that with the gearbox.
Use 75-90 Castrol Syntrans for the gearbox, it takes just over 2 litres.Â
Maybe because you’ve never experienced the 6 speed NC in colder weather then had the oil changed before winter I can’t see that being the blame only if they’ve put the incorrect oil in there. The 6 speed can be notchy when cold, changing oils helps but it’s not a complete cure.
There’s a lot of confusion regarding the turret oil to the point that I had mine done at a well known MX5 specialist. I asked them to do the the turret. When i picked the car up and asked if the turret had been done they told me that it does not have turret oil in the NC. If I had not been 100+ miles from home and just got off the poxy train I would have argued the case. I got it home and did the turret myself. I sent them an email asking what grade oil they had put in the gearbox and they did not respond so I’ll have to redo it myself. The cold performance of the gearbox from 1st to 2nd in the cold is atrocious to the point that if you don’t snatch it quick while the revs drop it wont go in at all without brute force. IMO they put the wrong oil in. I won’t be returning.
Looking on the internet, the consensus seems to be that with the NC 6 speed at least, there is no separate chamber for turret oil, and if you do put oil in the turret it will drain through into the gearbox. The actual gear lever linkage is lubed with white grease. So if thats the case, you probably can put oil in the turret, and it will mean the gearbox will contain more oil than its supposed to - as it has a filling level
Bit of a poll going on, what I read and after seeing some diagrams I’m in the camp there is a seperate chamber but how important this is to be lubed still unsure.
Thanks fo all the reply’s it appears still to be a puzzle, it may be that as this is the first year I have had the car then the colder weather has made it notchy as MickAP suggested not sure if it was a coincidence though. And it has not been as bad as BrilliantBlackBirdyis car mine has been little notchy on changing up but lousy changing down when cold having to double de clutch with big blip on throttle.
think I’ll change the gearbox oil and see what that does and at some point have a look in the turret at a later date.
Finally got round to changing the gearbox oil 4 days ago, it made an immediate improvement with just 1st and second still being notchy but better.
It is improving the more I drive, and it now quite happily changes down the box, so lesson learnt - don’t rush into changing oil without having a good read round and asking people who know !!
I have not done anything about the turret, if it continues to improve I am quite happy at the moment. I used Red Line® MT-90 Manual Transmission & Transaxle Lubricant