Mod Description

Although smart say this is a non servicable item, it would be foolish to use the same oil year in, year out. I recommended you change it every 3rd service. People have found the gearchange is much improved after doing this.

Mod Details

PremiumYes Difficulty Mod ID1534 Creditevilution For Linkhttps://www.evilution.co.uk/mod/roadster-gearbox-fluid-change.htm Copy to Clipboard

Important

Although the drain plugs are awkward to get to, do not jack your smart up to access it. This will raise the fill hole and increase the capacity. If you really must jack it up, level the car by jacking the front up level with the back.

Drive the car until it is at full operational temperature, this allows the fluid to warm up and therefore flow better from the casing.

Undo the top drain plug first, there is 2 reasons for this:

It allows the fluid to flow out easily from the lower drain

If you take out the lower plug first and can’t undo the top one because it is seized or the head becomes damaged, you have no way to refill the transmission.

If you do the top plug first and you cannot open it, you have no problems, you can sort it out in your own time.

Official Service Schedule For Gearbox Fluid

Smart’s stance on this has always been the same. In their view, the transmission fluid is a non service item and does not need changing for the entire life of the car. It’s not an oversight, this is what they have said in all of their cars since 1998. They clearly don’t have a clue and they should be ignored.

Evil’s Recommended Service Schedule

Anything between 40 and 60 thousand miles will be fine.

Roadster 452

Looking from the left side of the engine you will see the below image. The red circle shows the drain and the green circle shows the fill up point. Using an 8mm hexagon (allen) key, undo the fill up point.

Get a container and place it under the drain plug you are about to remove. With an 8mm hexagon (allen) key, unscrew the plug anticlockwise.

Don’t forget to catch a lot of it up your sleeve and let the plug fall in the container so you have to fish it out later.