Gear oil and other fluids
Gearbox oil, coolant, antifreeze and windscreen antifreeze.
- In brief: on changing transmission oil In sealed manual gearboxes the gear oil is not changed: only check the level and top up with the original oil from the car manufacturer.
- Choosing coolant Which coolant to use: only the one the carmaker specifies, never swapping antifreeze for Tosol, and only a quality product from a trusted seller and brand.
- Coolant Why coolant (antifreeze) must be changed on schedule, usually every two years, and how intervals have changed for modern Toyota coolants and Volkswagen G12evo.
- In brief: gear oils Why gear oil, especially for automatics, is best bought genuine: a substitute may be counterfeit or the wrong composition, and gearbox repairs are costly.
- Tosol and antifreeze, our car's technical fluids If the manufacturer recommends using antifreeze for a given car, that's exactly what you should use, not tosol or, worse still, windscreen washer fluid.
- Ethylene glycol and other achievements protecting your car Why coolant ages and when to change it, whether antifreezes can be mixed and concentrate used, what to top up with and why ethylene glycol is dangerous.
- Using anti-gel additives in winter How anti-gel additives work in diesel: why they help even with winter diesel, how they hold back paraffin crystals and why they go into still-warm fuel.
- What is antifreeze? Why antifreeze beats water, the Tosol A-40, A-65 and concentrate grades, checking by density, pH and foam, what the colour means and when to change the fluid.
- Antifreeze today: G12evo, G13 and why colour tells you nothing How modern antifreezes differ, what G12evo and G13 mean, why different coolants are best not mixed, and why you never choose antifreeze by its colour.
- DOT 4 LV brake fluid: what to top up with and when to change it? What DOT 3, 4, 5.1, 5 and DOT 4 LV mean, what you may top up the brake system with, and why the fluid is changed even when the level never drops.
- ATF, CVT and DSG: what goes into modern gearboxes? Why there is no universal “ATF”, how fluids for automatics, CVTs and dual-clutch gearboxes differ, and what “filled for life” really means.
- What oils and fluids does an electric car need? An electric car has no engine oil, but it does have a reduction gearbox, battery cooling, brakes and air conditioning. What to change, what to fill it with and what “filled for life” really means.