Gear whine

Okay Guy's, a bit of advice required.

Story so far....

As I've mentioned before, my jimny has a whine in the gearbox (that I originally thought was the rear diff), the noise has always been there since I bought the car in 2014. Six weeks or so after buying the car (I forget exactly) there were extra noises coming from the gearbox and it was duly repaired by the Suzuki stealer where I bought it. The told me at the time they had replaced all of the seals and bearings, the gears were fine and didn't need replacing. The whine was still there when I drove it from them, hence I thought it was the rear diff.

The car is serviced every year and I do approximately 3K per year. Each service I have all of the oils changed. My indie told me that all the oils are relatively clear apart from the gearbox oil which is black! I have thought about selling it, but I've decided not to go to the dark side and buy a Land Rover as the Jimny is exactly what I need.

So with the above in mind, I've decided that the best idea would be to change the oil in the gearbox for a fully synthetic type. I found Castrol Syntrans Multivehicle 75w 90 (GL4).

So before I buy it, has anyone used this oil in the gearbox of their jimny and is it okay?

Thanks.

Whatever the problem is, expensive oil won't fix it. The only thing I can think of that would turn gearbox oil black is molyslip- an additve that helps reduce gearbox noise. Do you use the same garage each year for the service?

Yes Busta, I have used this indie for 20 years. Very trustworthy, all our company vehicles are worked on by him as well. He only changes all the fluids at service because I ask him to.

I phoned a Company near Crawley that reconditions gearboxes and they told me that there could be a tight spot that heats the oil too much and causes carbonisation. It was they that suggested a better oil. The noise gets louder as the oil warms up!

Either way I've decided to keep the car. I just can't justify a potential £1200 repair (including new gears) when the car is only worth about £3.5K and as it's just a moderate sounding gear whine, nothing like those on youtube. I just hoped somebody on this forum has used this oil and had no problem after.

I put fully synthetic gear oil in my 2001 (no idea what brand), and I thought it made it even more difficult to get into 1st, so I went back to 75/90 semi-synthetic.

Can't see it hurting to try it, you are trying to solve a different problem.

Difflock used to do a fully synthetic gear oil that the Defender boys reckoned transformed the gearbox from needing both feet braced on the dashboard to 1 finger changes, I just thought- "It's a LandRover with over 100,000 on the clock- take it slow" and saved the money.

The noise is starting to get to me! I went Clay shooting on Friday afternoon and the noise there and home is not normal. On Saturday morning I took the car to the Stealer where I originally bought it and managed to get the service guy behind the desk to ride passenger and listen. He agreed there is definitely something wrong and not just the usual transmission noise.

I gave the Stealer all the guff about the noise has always been there and that the gearbox was rebuilt by them 6K miles ago. I now suspect bearings in the transfer box!

It's now booked in for a tech to sound it out this Friday. For those interested I will keep you posted.

Today I Took my car to the Suzuki dealer that sold the car to me. The Tech took the car out for a test drive and agreed that the noise shouldn't be there (I knew that already!!) The Tech couldn't tell if it was the diff, the transfer box or the gearbox. I reminded him that he rebuilt the gearbox 2 years (6K miles) ago and he went quiet and pointed me towards the service desk. The service desk guys advice was to book it in for a day so they can do further investigations, so it's now going to cost me more!

If it is the gearbox, I was advised by another mechanic who knows about the chocolate gearboxes in the post 2005 Jimny's, to fill the gearbox with EP90 and a measured amount of Lucas oil stabiliser. I'm sorely tempted!!

I've booked the car in for Monday 6th March to see what can be done. It's too noisy to trade in or sell.

I've had enough and the car has been sold. I have another car to get me around

I really want another jimmy, but one that doesn't have gearbox issues. Are the gearboxes any more reliable after 2007, or do all of the VVT engined jimmy's have the potential early gearbox bearing failure? If so, can anybody tell me what year jimmy I should look for?