XR4 Gearbox warning

[oemdenied]

We as a performance Ford workshop get asked quite often why the Fiesta XR4 gearbox fails if driven hard or if the engine has been mildly tuned.

The answer is because of its oil.
The gearbox is designed to be "fill for life" just like the Focus XR5/RS 6 speed gearbox. But unlike the Focus gearbox the fiesta does not have a drain plug so in 99% of cases the oil never gets changed.
If you own an XR4 the best thing you can do for your car is change the oil!!
The only way to do this without removing the entire gearbox is to remove a driveshaft, and suck as much oil out as you can through the driveshaft seal opening and through the fill plug.
The fill plug is located behind the plastic trim which cover the gear cable connections at the front of the gearbox. It is a 8mm allen key bung.

The most recent one we did was on an XR4 that had been driven normally its whole life by a young girl. Her father bought the car off her and brought it to us for power upgrades to the engine. We inspected the gearbox oil before we started modifying the engine and at a mere 96000km the oil was heavily burnt and if left would have caused failure very shortly when combined with the increased power. Now its been changed and is getting a serious workout by the owner.....still going strong

Hopefully we have saved a few gearboxes by sharing