Manual transmission fluid

[Grants]

Thanks for that.

How about Elf products? I can get some of that pretty cheap through a mate (free??) but I don't know anyone who has actually used them. I believe they are supposed to be pretty good though, they use Elf in F1 and other motor sports.

[IanL]

They are a reputable company, but oil is not just oil as far as Japanese gearboxes go. I looked up their au website, and it'd just got marketingspeak, nothing about the products. Can't emphasise enough that what was said above is absolutely correct. If there's sulphur in the gear oil, the synchros will be written off very quickly. Unless you can be sure there's no sulphur in their gear oil, don't use it.

I use Castrol Syntrax Universal, and I know you can get that in Aus. Absolutely safe for the synchros, and the notchiness that was in the box when I got the car has disappeared. I've modded my gearshift for short throw, and I can change 1-2 or 3-4 with one finger, it's that easy.

<small>[ August 04, 2004, 01:51 AM: Message edited by: IanL ]</small>

[Tempus]

This is great info, thanks folks.


as an associated question, how often do you folks recommend changing tranny fluid?

[yuuki]

i use motul 300 75w90 synthetic gear oil and it works wonders ^_^

[Grants]

I'll look into the Elf oil to find out if it has sulphur in it.

I work on a pit crew for GT Performance (Mitsubishi Evo and he is considering a switch to Elf from Redline as Elf are offering him the products as sponsorship. Theres a meeting this weekend at Wakefield Park so I'll see what I can find out and post back here.

If you want to look up the category it is at www.procar.com.au . The Mazda RX7 of Rick Shaw is going really well and coming third in the championship.

[dewthis]

IMO, Redline sucks and so does Royal Purple. Get some Synchro Mesh and be done with it. I have used it all, Synchro mesh is first followed by Royal Purple and finally Redline. Redline reacted really bad with my tranny, it made second and third grind really bad. Put some synchro Mesh in and no problems since. Just my two cents?

[Gro Harlem]

Not that I think it matters, but isn't the recommended viscosity 75W80? It was on my protege, and it has the same tranny the mx3 gs's have.

[IanL]

75W-90 or 80W-90, GL4 or GL5

[Tempus]

So I just changed out the tranny 'oil' for the Redline MT-90.. with tax it was about $25 for three quarts.. not cheap. on the other hand the car was sitting for nearly 5 years waiting for me to save up enough to afford a new engine, and who knows how long before that the fluid was changed. So I figure this is good preventive maintance if nothing else. Fluids and lubricants especially are NOT the place to be cheap.

I feel that I can already sense a difference, and I've only driven maybe 20-30 miles so far..

It used to be fairly rough going from 1st to second, and second to third.. seems smoother already..

I can't wait to see what it's like in another 200 miles or so..

Still waiting to hear how often the rest of you feel the transmission fluid should be changed?

<small>[ August 06, 2004, 12:30 AM: Message edited by: Tempus ]</small>

[Gro Harlem]

25 for 3qts of redline is a bargain. anything less than 9 per qt is a good price.

Lots of ppl never even change their tranny fluid ever, so its kinda lame saying $40 is too much money to spend on the fluid to ensure your tranny won't wear out & shift nicer.

IMO one of the best bang-for-ur-buck things you can do is just change your fluid to redline or royal purple, or amsoil.

[Tempus]

Originally posted by Gro Harlem:
25 for 3qts of redline is a bargain. anything less than 9 per qt is a good price.

Lots of ppl never even change their tranny fluid ever, so its kinda lame saying $40 is too much money to spend on the fluid to ensure your tranny won't wear out & shift nicer.

IMO one of the best bang-for-ur-buck things you can do is just change your fluid to redline or royal purple, or amsoil.

I agree it's great bang for the buck.. that's why I did it...

it's only expensive compared to standard tranny oil.. for what it gets you, I think the price is fine.

[Grants]

Tried to find out about the Elf products with no luck. Elf may be big in Europe (don't know about the States and Canada) but they're virtually non existent here and seem to have a poor distributor network. They let us down on the weekend as they didn't even get engine oil to us until after the meeting. Some sponsor.

So screw them - I'm going to give Elf a miss for good and go with something else.

[HindSight110]

i have my oil on hand, just not sure if im understanding this correctly:
you add it through the teeny speedo cable hole protruding from the side of the bellhousing? just at a dribble i guess? haha

[mikeinaus]

6 year old thread...

[MrMazda92]

There was a 9yr old revival recently, I forget where I read it. Nothing wrong with merging old and new though, with changing technology May clear up previous misconceptions a bit! I was wondering this recently too, which brand to go with, as well as weight. I'm having a hard time deciding.