I did it ..I wrecked my gearbox !! STUPID ME!!!! July I did the major on my beautiful 91 348 , replaced the cam belt and bearings. Pulled the engine out everything went like a charm…… There is one incredible huge mistake I made instead of draining the engine oil I drained the gearbox oil thinking it was the engine oil . I did not need to worry about my gearbox oil because I replaced it two years ago. When everything came together I filled op the engine oil and it drove like always for 200 KM. A nice trip came up for me going to the formula one in Monza Italy 1250 KM.I am going there with my 348 already 9 years now. After 250 km I smelled a burning oil I parked the car to see what was going on I could not find anything ….I started the car but could not get it in reverse….Not knowing what was happened I drove it to the nearest garage to check out if the cables came looser or if they where no good aliened. I could not find anything so I decided to go back because 2500 km with no reverse was not an option.. I lifted my car to look what was going on I only took a second for me to know what was going on… OMG what did I do …I could cry how could I be so stupid!!! The gearbox still works fine in all 5 gears but impossible to get in reverse after 500 km without gearbox oil.. I will pull the gearbox this weekend to see what’s left of it… Deeply disappointed to myself.. Luuk
Hello! I read on here of a guy doing the exact same thing... doing 20 hard laps on a track (HARD) going back to check the levels and realising the mistake... filled up with gearbox oil then went back out.. did another 20 and never had a problem Also heard of castrol GTX or whoever filling an engine... doing 5000 miles... emptying the oil then running for another 100 (magnatec I think it was) to prove the point. I know its not as far... however fill that sucker up and try to work it out. I recon after 100 miles reverse will re engage. Then empty flush and have another go. Whats the worst that can happen? Yes you already did that and its still going so now lets try being nice to the gearbox for a bit! Best of luck... remember to write back! N
sorry to hear that happened ...seems being a long term 348 owner, that having a spare gearbox at the ready might be a plus
Oh that just sucks Luuk. I'm going to guess the sycros for reverse are locked up out of alignment from being dry. You may get lucky and they come undone with some oil in the gear box??? It's worth a shot adding oil and driving it for a while to see if reverse starts to work again. If it does, then you lucked out. If it doesn't, then pull the gearbox. You have a 50/50 chance.
Wow... sorry to hear that. If all five forward gears are working, at the very least pull the drain plug and the inspection plate and look for metal shrapnel before filling it back up.
If you accidentally drained the gearbox oil, rather than the engine oil... the original engine oil was still in the car... right? If you added 6-8 quarts on top of that, the car wouldn't have run, or would have smoked like crazy... Does that make sense?
The most engine oil came out when i puled the oil cooler tube so there was not to much oil in the engine....Never gave it a tought that there was still a lot coming out..
I don’t think filling will do the trick something is broke …there is a metal plate between the 2 sprocket wheels that has play on it.. the right sprocket is the one for the reverse… the upper normaly slides over there when it is going in reverse. I pulled the inspection plate there was no metal shrapnel. excuse for my crappy english ;-) Image Unavailable, Please Login
I would wait until someone here that has experience with the 348 gearbox jumps in. That may just be a syncro or something that is supposed to have slack in it. Take some better pictures to give us more info.
Sorry to read this mate, I would be very suprised if there was no damage was done after 250 km of driving with no oil in the gearbox. I can't tell whats going on that pic you posted up, but if you can get better pics up that would be great. Good luck and let us know how you go with it.
This weekend I am going to pull the gearbox from the car. I will make high resolution pictures and post them. I am sure something is broke because there is some kind of spacer with play on it. Its a bit hard to explain so hopefully pictures will make more sense to you all. Thanks ;-)
I have read about this happening a few times. And I understand how it could happen. But for gods sakes doesn't anybody check the freeking oil level after they change the oil????????? I tweek the crap out of it until it is at my "happy" level.
This is one of the reasons I always measure the oil I take out of an engine as well as measuring the new oil I put in. I'm really sorry for the OP but this should be a lesson to people considering DIY servicing (on any car) - make sure you are 101% sure of the procedure and your capability to carry it out before embarking on it. A great DIY'er knows his limits!
You know, it's strange, but it can happen --- and, I would cut the OP some slack here..... I'm a fairly accomplished DIY'er (I've even worked in a few race-prep shops back in my youth), and I nearly did the same thing several years ago with my Mitsubishi truck/SUV. The vehicle was new (I had only had it for about 4 months), and I went to change the engine oil for the first time ---- not appreciating that the sump would be covered by skid plates (you would figure they would design the oil drain plug / filter to have easy, quick access), I popped the drain plug on the "pan" that was accessible ---- however, that turned out to be the pan / plug for the automatic transmission !!! Fortunately, ATF is easy to distinguish from motor oil, and the capacities were obviously very different --- 11 qts in the tranny vs 5 qts in the engine sump --- so, it was easy for me to see at a glance my mistake right away, before any harm could be done. But, if you are talking used gear oil vs used engine oil, and in very similar capacities (like most F-car drivetrains), and put the drain plugs for sump & gearbox right next to each other......... I can see someone making the mistake of draining one for the other, especially if they are unfamiliar with the car.
