Previous owner put gear oil in tranny. How bad is this going to be?

[mephi]

So, I'm draining all of the fluids out of the car I just picked up so I can pull the engine. I'm going to have to replace the oil pan, since the drain plug was a rubber stopper. I'm going to check the main bearings for damage now, but the compression is good on all four cylinders.

I went to drain the tranny and the wonderful smell of gear oil slowly and thickly poured out of the drain plug. I know the manual out of the '87 uses 10w30 motor oil or something like that. Is this thing screwed or can I just fill it with the recommended fluid when I put it all back together and hope it all works out?

[A18A]

the drain plug was a rubber stopper

thats a bit hory lol.

should be alright just topping it back up with recommended oil. i had mine running on old waste oil i dont even know where it came from for a while, wasnt the best but it still worked, it did whine a bit under load though. about 500km ago i swapped it for some new oil and it feels way smoother and also no more whining

[l75eya]

I used to have a stick 93 nissan altima that I replaced the tranny in, the new one leaked though and I didn't have the money to get the gasket, so I would just fill it with gear oil (forget what weight) all the time. Never gave me a problem at all. I don't think gear oil will really mess your tranny up, so I think you're in luck, probably just fill it up with whatever it calls for.

[2oodoor]

that oil Honda puts in them smells like gear oil and even if it was it would not hurt anything

[lostforawhile]

pull the oil pan and see if you can put a helicoil insert in there. and why are you pulling the engine to replace the oil pan?

[mephi]

I'm doing several other things to it. Replacing all the seals, checking for leaks, etc. It's just going to be easier to pull the engine to do all of the stuff I want to do, and it will make cleaning out the engine bay easy. I have all the equipment and the time needed, so it's really not that big of a deal.

[Civic Accord Honda]

i think someone put gear oil in my civics engine or something hella thick .... when i drained it slowy poured out and when i touched it it felt like fudge O_O and once i put some fresh 10W40 in it the car seemed to run much smoother and was more responsive ...

[A18A]

haha pulling teh engine out of the car usually makes things a whole lot easier

[ArokASE88LXi]

Funny you should mention that i bought my 86 Lxi From a friend I worked with, he said when he bought it he drained it just like your doing and it seemed like gear oil so he just put some new stuff in it and drove it for 7 YEARS with gear oil in it before he was glancing through the manual (Or alldata im not sure which) and realized it was supposed to be motor oil. he changed it and the tranny still works decently to this day with 325,000 miles on it!! If your worried i would put some BG syncro shift fluid back in it when your done it's really good (and expensive) stuff. GOOD LUCK!!!