Transmission Oil

Transmission oil is easy to forget about. This winter I realized that I probably had let mine go a little longer than I should have. It probably should be changed at least once a season on a car like mine. My car sees 20 autocross races a year at an average of 8 runs per event and almost a mile per run.

That's not an official service interval of course. There are no "official" numbers for racing since everything "depends" on the duration, level and type of racing. On a race car, nearly every bit of maintenance needs to be done a LOT more often than with street driving. So for another example I change my oil about once every 6 auto crosses, which works out to about 3-4 times a year, or in terms of mileage, about once every 40-50 miles of racing... Similar to changing it after every 1-2 track days.

Fluids are cheap the parts they lubricate are expensive! Buy good fluids often, because that's much better than buying cam shafts, engines or transmissions! Also,  you never miss a race because you had to do an oil change... failed parts however frequently cause missed or aborted racing.

For something new this year, I decided to try my hand at vlogging and produced a video that might be helpful for those who want to avoid a trip to the mechanic, save some money and change their own transmission oil.

This is not a difficult job, but of course I am not a trained mechanic, and you should use your own caution and do your own research before attempting any of this on your car (especially if it's not a lotus!) If you see something I could do better, leave a comment on this page or on the video.

Some additional commentary and advice here: http://www.lotustalk.com/forums/f25/transmission-oil-change-445914/