Turret oil.

Itā€™s still there in my 6 speed NC

A couple of years ago I topped up the gearbox turret oil, it looked dry when checked.

So an update on this as in another thread it was asked if it needed any and I was curious to know how it looked now

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Nice one Mick and presumably the general gearbox level is sufficiently lower as it certainly appears to be.

I think the turrets(MK1 - MK3) all work on the same principle where the oil that overflows the turret goes into the gearbox.

In that case if you are changing gearbox oil, sensible to clear out all existing turret oil and clean turret before starting to fill through the turret until turret overflowing and then top up through usual gearbox filler port until correct level achieved.

Can it be that simple? So much misinformation around I am beginning to doubt myself as I type.Ā  Ā Ā 

The only gearbox i know of (MX-5) that you can fill through the turret is the Mk2 6 speed, Iā€™ve done it myself. As far as Iā€™m aware if the turret takes oil itā€™s completely separate to the box itself on the others.

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It would be handy to know if the 5 speed MK3 has turret oil, as yet no one has mentioned that oneĀ 

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Mk2/2.5 6 speed does not use turret oil although all mk1/2 2.5, 5 speed boxes do. No info on mk3 cars

Look up ā€˜turret oilā€™ on a search Mick - I just did.

Lots of contradictory information.

The posts on this forum along with all the others I have searched previously on this very subject areĀ  to put it politely confused.Ā  Ā Ā 

Would be nice if someone could put this one to bed, so to speak and exorcise a lot of confusing and contradictory posting.

Robbie are you there?Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā Ā 

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Well my 1.8 5 speed Mk3.5 had oil in the turret. When I changed the gearbox oil I sucked out the old oil in the turret and put fresh oil in there too.

i found this below, who knows if itā€™s correct or just fantasy?

My post above was just to clarify if you put oil in the 6 speed NC turret it stays there and doesnā€™t drain down into the box. Agree thereā€™s some conflicting views on this and nothing in manuals apart from the one stated by the owner below.

Iā€™ll leave it at that although Iā€™ve read other stuff and some are definitely confused about it all.

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ā€œI have a factory manual for my 2006.

The factory manual shows the turret and it states how much fluid to put in both the 5 spd and 6 spd manual transmission turrets. This is a separate oil fill from the lower gear case.

You lift out the shifter shaft to expose the turret oil compartment. If you decide to change the turret oil, lift out the shifter shaft and suction out the existing oil. Then refill it to the level of the small plastic ā€œcupā€ which the lower ball of the shifter shaft fits into. Or fill it with the amount shown in the factory manual.

It may be a lifetime fill, but I chose to change the fluid in the turret when I changed the fluid in my lower gear case.

The NC 6spd has the top of the middle large shifter ball exposed. It helps for easier shifting if you give this a coating of white lithium grease. It did help mine.ā€

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This agrees with the copy of ā€œ2006 MX-5 Service Highlights.pdfā€ (492 pages) I have which shows cut-away drawings and explanations of how the 5-speed, 6-speed and Auto transmissions work in Section 5-11A, 5-11B and 5-13.  In each of the two manual instances there is an oil seal on the control rod leaving the turret, that then operates on the gear selection rods.

A Google search finds various sources for this file, it is reasonably big at 14MB.

Checked mine today as the change felt a bit stiff, it was filled to the brim! looks like the oil had washed away all the grease on the top fulcrum ball. Definitely worth checking :+1: