I'd like to think that I'm neither blind nor stupid. But my owner's
manual says I'm supposed to check the differential/gearbox lube level
from time to time, something I missed (I have been religious with oil
changes, however, so my thinking was that the dealer was checking it
for me).

Now, I've decided to start doing a little more maintenance on my own,
and I want to check the level.

The book tells me that for a manual, the dipstick has a yellow handle
and is somewhere on the passenger's side of the engine compartment,
between the engine and the firewall. That would make sense, as that's
above the front diff and close to the gearbox.

I've now spent an hour with a really big flashlight searching for the
damn thing and come up with nothing. A phone call to my mechanic said
it should be there as well. Wrong.

Can someone who either has or has had my exact model tell me where the
hell to look to find the elusive dipstick? Or is the book just lying
to me and there isn't one?

thanks.

On Tue, 30 Sep 2008 12:45:05 -0600, S <jernigan@chester.uccs.edu>
wrote:

>Hi Zaphod!
>
>On Mon, 29 Sep 2008 22:13:01 -0500, zaphod <user@host.com> wrote:
>
>>
>>Now, I've decided to start doing a little more maintenance on my own,
>>and I want to check the level.
>>
>>
>>I've now spent an hour with a really big flashlight searching for the
>>damn thing and come up with nothing. A phone call to my mechanic said
>>it should be there as well. Wrong.

>
>The dip-stick for the MT is located on the right side (passenger side
>on USDM cars) of the transmission, about 8-10 inches above and forward
>of where the axle exits the tranny.
>
>Email me directly, and I'll send along that page from the factory
>manual. It's a bit hidden on the turbo cars, but you really shouldn't
>have any trouble finding it on the RS. It's bright yellow plastic, and
>goes into a short steel tube about 3/4in in diameter on the side of
>the case. If the dip-stick is _missing_ (ie there's just an empty
>hole), get one ASAP, and purge the fluid to remove possible
>particulate contamination. Fill level is clearly marked with a
>crosshatched region on the dip-stick.
>

Thanks, Steve.

I have the MT. That thing was so hidden that even the service manager
couldn't find it. We finally called the mechanic over, he reached
waaayyyy down and behind a bundle of cables, and pulled it out.

At least now I don't feel so dumb -- it took a guy who knew exactly
where it was supposed to be to find it. Otherwise, it was completely
hidden from view by the loom.

And the fluid is just fine.