Moto Guzzi V85 TT E5+ gearbox and final drive oil change adventure

Based on quite a few folks bitching about Moto Guzzi gearbox and final drive oil levels as supplied in shipments to dealers, I decided to check my machines levels for myself.

A pal of mine has a 2027 V85 Strada and his machine was well short of all oil levels so I had no choice for my own personal peace of mind’s sake to check this out so as to put it to bed once and for all.

My engine oil was vastly over filled by 113 ml.

Turns out something funky was going on in my shaft drive unit as grey metal filing sludge after 353 miles was pretty shocking to me.

The Guzzi folk all tell me this is normal for a V85 e5+ motor.

It had exactly 130 ml in it which is absolutely correct, not withstanding the horrid dark gray sludge that dribbled out the case.

E4 engines had final drive units that took 160 ml, but 2024 on E5 units had the newer one that must not have more than 130 ml in it.

The Guzzi manual for the E4 stipulated 180 ml, but the Mandrello del Lario folk rapidly amended it to 160 ml.

This oil is 75W140 GL5 spec full synthetic gear oil. It runs $49.99 a liter and will do the gearbox and the final drive unit on a single 1 liter bottle as the gearbox needs 700 ml.

I used Liquid Molly and they are a rather fine German synthetic oils company.

Motul and Castrol both carry this spec gear oil that can be used in a Guzzi gearbox or final drive unit.

I watched a YouTube video of a Lithuanian guy doing his V85 with the Motul gear oil but then he shows a follow in video where he is adding Motul Molybdenum to both the Shaft Drive unit and the gearbox.

As someone who knows a bit about chemistry of exotic synthetic oils I can tell you this is not a good idea.

The molybdenum will break the 75W140 GL5 chemistry and render it useless.

if you have a 2021 onwards V85 TT or Strada, do not add this additive to either your gearbox of final drive unit with Motul or Liquid Moly GL5 oil.

If you use AGIP which the Manufacturer does use, this is not an issue but Liquid Molly and Motul GL5 oils do not need this additive and as I said this additive breaks their liquid engineering properties.

Also, the Mandrello del Lario folk suggest 20,000 km before you change these oils after the break in service.

This is a fucking stupid idea.

May I suggest final drive oil be changed every 3000 miles (5000 km).

Gearbox oil needs to be changed every 5000 miles (8000 km).

Engine oil needs changing at 931 miles then every 5000 miles after that.

This is my considered opinion.

The oil that came out of my gearbox came to 570 ml which was 130 ml less than the 700 it should have been.

This AGIP oil was still golden and you could see it was new, unlike what came out of the final drive unit, but the quantity was the problem. Metal filings on the drain plug took three twists with a suitable cloth to clean up and was way less than I had been expecting.