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I decided to check all my car's fluid levels today, after 2 out of 2 different mechanics this year over-filled the engine oil, incl a 'performance workshop' (causing bad smoking on startup yesterday ). Anyway, thanks to the forum and my experience earlier this year, I knew that draining the excess would fix that - it's back to normal now.

But I also noticed the MT Fluid on my 6sp GT SpecB is about 1cm over the Full mark. 1cm seems a lot, since that's about as much as it is between Low and Full, so is that an issue?
I tried syphoning some out, but it's not as easy as just putting a tube down and using a syringe to take some out. That was the easiest way for me to do the engine oil, and that worked well.

I've used a 4mm tube down the engine dipstick hole to siphon some excess oil out, surely that would also work on the 6mt dipstick hole?

bigBADbenny wrote:I've used a 4mm tube down the engine dipstick hole to siphon some excess oil out, surely that would also work on the 6mt dipstick hole?

You'd think so, but I had no luck. That worked well for the engine oil, but not for the 6mt hole. I first used a long 50cm tube (probably 4mm outer diameter, and 2mm inner). When that didn't work, I thought the syringe I had (~50mL - so not massive) was too small to suck the oil up in one go. Pinching the tube to maintain suction, and pumping again & again worked well for the engine oil, but not in this case. So I cut the tube down to ~20cm (just a bit longer than the dip stick), to have minimum distance for the oil to travel....no change. The tube is covered in oil when I pull it back out... I'll try again tomorrow. I think I'll buy the biggest syringe I can buy (doing 50+ pumps for the engine oil did get annoying, but it worked).

I must be blind..Where is the 6mt dip stick

gen3v8 wrote:I must be blind..Where is the 6mt dip stick

The owner's manual shows it well. But basically on the LH side a bit underneath engine, and under the intercooler. Much easier to see with the plastic engine cover removed.

EDIT: And by LH side I actually mean RH side. LH side if you're facing the rear of the car, looking at the engine.

Finally managed to drain the excess with a syringe. What makes it difficult is that the tube has to go straight down into the dipstick hole. If the tube is a bit curved (like the one I used, and probably most), it goes into a different part of the transmission which doesn't hold the oil. Probably sounds silly, and someone who's had one apart can tell us more. But basically going down anywhere from 20cm (just over the dipstick length), to the very bottom (50cm+) just sucks up air, if it's either side of dead-centre. Only getting the tube perfectly straight down the dipstick hole allows sucking up from the oil reservoir.

EDIT: Was about 300-500mL, so quite a bit to get a 1cm drop on the dipstick.

And on a final note, draining the excess has also fixed the issue I had where 1st gear was hard to select when the car was cold . And by cold I mean the oil not up to temperature (and probably thicker than when hot), because the car doesn't see temps lower than 30-35deg up here in North QLD at the moment lol. Gears generally feel a bit more notchy now (but not in a bad way), but that's partly due to my STi short shifter.

1cm doesn't mean 1cm if you know what I mean. 1cm in the tube is maybe 10ml of oil versus 100+ml if it is lower because you don't know the profile of the reservoir. Don't get stressed over a mild over fill. Good practice is to always under-fill (use manual as a guide and shoot for 10% less). This won't do any harm and once things have settled you can top up. You could use a clear tube and suck it with you mouth and just make sure you stop before it gets too high. Put your thumb on the end quickly and transfer to a clean vessel .

Shaheenis wrote:1cm doesn't mean 1cm if you know what I mean. 1cm in the tube is maybe 10ml of oil versus 100+ml if it is lower because you don't know the profile of the reservoir. Don't get stressed over a mild over fill. Good practice is to always under-fill (use manual as a guide and shoot for 10% less). This won't do any harm and once things have settled you can top up. You could use a clear tube and suck it with you mouth and just make sure you stop before it gets too high. Put your thumb on the end quickly and transfer to a clean vessel .

True, it was about 500mL in the end. But the reservois could very well taper in/out as it gets lower.
The tube workes well in the end with a syringe, just a matter of aligning it.