Tony K

Hey, people who have been driving 944s daily for at least a few years and have tried several different gear oils -

What do you like and why? I would like to hear your *experiences* and *observations* (no regurgitation of marketing claims! ), especially with stuff available at retail auto parts stores...

Thanks,

theedge

Ive got Redline in there now. I didnt notice a huge differance from whatever WAS in there, but IIRC the stuff that was in there stank to high hell... I think I saw a post, one brand starting with S was known for its smell.

Anyway, no complaints about Redline. Only trick (to filling in general) use a length of garden hose, not the thin plastic tube clarks garage suggests. Garden hose fits in the fill hole perfect. Other trick get a big pot of BOILING water, let the bottles of gear oil sit in there for a while. Then pour them down the hose. Goes WAY faster.

hoffman912

SWEPCO!!!!

smkn951

what weight is it? is it 80/90?

ERAU-944

SWEPCO is the bomb.

i've used it for 30k miles, still shifts smooth as silk. cured hard shifting when cold in our '83 garage queen and my '84 'daily'

i've heard a lot of good things about redline... i think i will use that in the miata

the smell in swepco (and the old gear oil that came out) is from the sulfur.

seb928s

I use Swepco and it works so much better from whatever was in there. Less noise and smooth gear changes when it's cool outside because I wouldn't call it cold in Florida.

smkn951

transaxle oil same as gearbox or transmission right?

sayporsha

Mobil1. It made my 951 shift smoother & eliminated the hard shifting when cold. It also stopped the chatter in the locking rear differential of my Suburban.

Zero10

Hmm, sulfur in swepco? Not a good thing to have in your transmission.

I run Amsoil, I was very impressed at first, but it shifts terribly at -35 to -40. Then again, I'm sure most gear oils would. I should probably run motor oil in the winter...
It shifts excellently when it gets good and warm, but even when it's around freezing it feels pretty notchy.

I would reccomend Redline, driven a couple cars with it in the transmission, they all felt really good.

ERAU-944

i dunno if the swepco had sulfur, but the old gear oil i took out certainly did. and i thought i smelled it on the swepco too. what's wrong with sulfur in the tranny?

Serge944

Currently running swepco 201...what a difference!

smkn951

is there anything i can do to completely take the old oil out and replace with fresh stuff? any suggestions on the proceedure aside from taking the tranny apart and cleaning it piece by piece?
tia

Tom R.

mobil 1 took the notchiness/need to yank out of the first to second shift when it was cold. otherwise it felt the same.

Will put it in the camaro when I change the fluid this winter.

seems nobody has anything bad to say about mobil 1 products. A guy in my office just told me he has 215k on a 93 subaru that had mobil 1 from day 1.

inactiveuser92616

smkn 951; there is no need to fully flush the tranny of what is in there; unless you have had some sort of mechanical failure (metal chips). Unless you are an experience tranny tech; fully dissasembling the tranny would get you a bunch of cool looking paperweights. To properly reassemble a street transmission; you need a bunch of shims and specialized tools to get the clearances and preloads correct. Just draining out the oil and putting in new would be completely fine.

Something I did on my first car, when swapping in a fresh tranny, was drain out the transmission and fill it up with engine flush (powerful degreaser, dont get on skin) and went through the gears with the car off of the ground. It got some more of the old oil out; but in retrospect I think it was a bad idea. For one, there was some residue of a solvent left in the case, to mess with the new oil. Second, I ran the gearbox without appropriate lubrication; albeit if without load and only for a short time.

There was my $.20

josephsc

I drove my 944 around New England winter -- switching to Mobile 1 did wonders back then (but then the old tranny oil was really really old).