Oil level?

Today on the drive home from school the shifting was partiucularly bad across the board. I checked the oil gauge and it was in the middle as normal, but when I came to a stop it dropped to the low position (1/3 the way up). So when I got home I checked the dip stick (3 times) and it was high (just after the second notch but before the twist). Wtf is wrong? Does the oil gauge measure the engine oil or the tranny oil or what? How can I check the transmission oil? Ohh and I looked under the car and there didn't seem to be any leaking. What is involved in changing the transmission oil (if its different from the regular oil), and what kind would I need?

ya, the oil gauge on your car measures only the engine oil. trans oil, i don't think, can be measured. however, since you just got your car, you might as well change the tranny oil. we've posted a few times, Igovert and I, that we both use Pennzoil Synchromesh MTX fluid. i got mine at www.midwayautosupply.com b/c not many stores down here in TX carry it.

as for changing the fluid, 316 has some good illustrated info on it: http://www.stealth316.com/2-awddrainfill.htm

Yea I want to change it, but what would cause my gauge to read low other than the gauge being broken, I went out to move the car so I could use my moms and it was still all warmed up from driving home and it read two notches from the low line... not good. Dipstick still reads fuller than full.

Perhaps we should clarify by saying that it is reading the pressure of the oil in the engine although you probably already know that. That pressure will fluctuate as you drive because you are constantly changing the pressure in the engine. I would not be looking at your oil gauge as the source of your problem. Do a tranny flush and then see if you still have bad shifting. Having engine oil above the full position on your dipstick is fine (as long as it is not excessive), what you need to worry about is having the correct amount of tranny fluid since your tranny is much more pressure sensitive.

Yeah, the pressure gauge fluctuates with quite a few things, temperature, how hard your driving, rpms, etc...and just like our boost gauge it isn't always all that accurate. But those levels you are describing sound pretty normal. If anything, you might have a bit too much oil in there is it is above the 2nd line...the 2nd line is about where it should be.

Also the 2nd link Linbckr gave is all you need to know about tranny oil in a vr4. If you have everything you need and don't have to make a multiple trips 2 autozone in your mom's car (yeah it sucked) you can knock it out in an hour or 2.

I just put the car up on 2 jackstands, 1 3 ton jack, and 3 scissor emergency jacks from various cars, printed out the pictures from stealth316, bought fluids and pumps and torque wrench, and went at it.

I found I had trouble with getting access to the t-case plugs, so you may have to remove your downpipe to do this....and if you do that...they why not just gut the precats...see it can be one productive Saturday afternoon :)

As far as checking the oil level accurately...I had to pull the dipstick out and wipe it off 5-6 times before it was where it was actually at (which was none at all!). I think the tube just holds a lot of fluid on the walls so you have to keep wiping it off untill there's no fluid above, and there's just a solid line where it stops.

There was a pretty solid line and to check to see if it was just oil in the tube I stuck it in allmost all teh way down and pulled it out and there wasn't any on it. I did notice that there was an orangish deposit on the oil cap.

I read a big long thread on the synchromesh stuff on 3SI and seems that people have had mixed results, some say its because it wasn't made for our cars and is too light. I'm going ot check out royal purple.

Ok well I did some reading on the synchromesh over at 3SI, seems like a LOT of people hate it. There dosent seem to be ANY consensus on what one should use in the tranny and transfer case though... WTF should I use!

Edit: After doing some more reading I'm leaning more towards Royal Purple. Has anyone else done all the reading up on what works and what dosent? I want much smoother like the pen Synchromesh seems to give but withought the wear and tear and frequent oil changes that seem to be associated with it. Anyone use the Purple?

Edit: After doing some more reading I'm leaning more towards Royal Purple. Has anyone else done all the reading up on what works and what dosent? I want much smoother like the pen Synchromesh seems to give but withought the wear and tear and frequent oil changes that seem to be associated with it. Anyone use the Purple?

Wait, what wear and tear due to Synchromesh? Hehe Because I'm gonna do mine over the summer and don't want anything wearing and especially not tearing.... :p No seriously, what bad stuff did you hear about it?

I'll go find the big thread about it.
http://www.3si.org/forum/showthread.php?t=233862&highlight=synchromesh
http://www.3si.org/forum/showthread.php?t=254510

Damn! Well Thourun, I'm just as stumped as you are. Anyone here wanna say anything about the matter? I know a couple of you guys are using Synchromesh....have you drained it and checked to see how it looks and so forth?