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Transmission oil

Transmission oil replacement frequency depends on the car model and is noted in its maintenance manual. Apart from lifetime end, lubricant can become unserviceable due to overheating or soiling with abrasive particles. Operational lifetime of oil shortens in conditions of frequent temperature changes and excessive humidity. Frequent wheel slipping and sharp braking also cause negative effect to condition of the liquid.

The fact that oil stopped performing its functions can be indicated by the following signs: gear changing occurs with delay, or they are changing randomly, humming of transmission gears is heard during driving.

Installation of a new oil filter is necessary at replacement of automatic transmission lubricant. This procedure usually doesn’t accompany replacement of oil for manual transmissions – they are rarely equipped with the gearbox filter.

How to select transmission oil

By their formulation, transmission oils for final drive, gearbox, differential and other transmission components can be mineral or synthetic. Mineral oils are less expensive, but become unserviceable faster and provide less reliable protection of car mechanisms. More expensive synthetic lubricants have more improved sets of softening and compensating additives, and serve longer. By applicability, there are transmission oil types for manual, automatic and CVT gearboxes.

Transmission oils which will protect the most important mechanisms of your car are produced by such well-known firms as Liqui Moly, Vaico, Swag, Meyle and others.

In order to properly select a lubricant for your car you need to consider the markings printed on packaging. So, SAE markings indicate oil viscosity at one or another temperature. Products efficient at high environmental temperature, as in summer, are marked with digits: 80, 85, 90, 140, 250. The higher the number is, the higher kinematic viscosity of material at 100 °С is. Winter oils have alphanumeric marking: 70W, 75W, 80W, 85W, where “W” stands for “winter”. All-season products have double marking, such as 85W-90.

API classification presupposes 6 types of oil with various operational characteristics, however, nowadays only two of them are used in passenger cars: GL-4 and GL-5. They differ by activity and functions of additives, and, correspondingly, by operational conditions. GL-5 oils are suitable for usage in transmissions bearing very high loads.

ATF lubricant is used in automatic transmissions. The optimum solution is to purchase original liquid from the vehicle manufacturer. However, you can buy ATF Dexron or Mercon of suitable specification (it can be learned from the car technical documentation) or any other universal automatic transmission oil with approval by a certain transmission manufacturer.