What Tranny fluid do you use?

[mikeyjd]

I have a few that I am curious about. I'm just wondering if anyone has tried anything that they found to be exceptional for wear and efficiency in the festy transmissions. I'm particularly wondering about Redline MTL.

[Movin]

There are several threads in the past about this but the current stuff out my opinion is the redline MTL is about the best. Better than you need really. I have been using mobil 1 0w20
and have no reason to change. Royal Purple is really good. Amsoil is alright.

There are lots of old school oils that work well like syncromesh , these are the kind of oils you can find in searches. I used to use good dex 2 with a bottle of power punch and loved it.

[mikeyjd]

There are several threads in the past about this but the current stuff out my opinion is the redline MTL is about the best. Better than you need really. I have been using mobil 1 0w20
and have no reason to change. Royal Purple is really good. Amsoil is alright.

There are lots of old school oils that work well like syncromesh , these are the kind of oils you can find in searches. I used to use good dex 2 with a bottle of power punch and loved it.

mobile 1 engine oil?

[Aaronbrook37]

My Festiva Turbo (still a stock transmission mind you) has generic 75w90 gear oil in it... nothing special, just store brand stuff. I've just purchased 3 quarts of Redline MTL for my Forsa Turbo project... expensive stuff! We'll see if it makes any difference in the performance of the transmission. Fortunately you don't have to replace this stuff very often!

[mikeyjd]

My Festiva Turbo (still a stock transmission mind you) has generic 75w90 gear oil in it... nothing special, just store brand stuff. I've just purchased 3 quarts of Redline MTL for my Forsa Turbo project... expensive stuff! We'll see if it makes any difference in the performance of the transmission. Fortunately you don't have to replace this stuff very often!

Yeah. I've heard it's pretty awesome stuff I just don't want to spend the money unnecessarily. Are you using conventional or synthetic 0/20w Movin?

[blkfordsedan]

I'm a big fan of GM Synchromesh. It offers excellent gear protection over ATF and the friction modifiers are designed for optimum synchro operation. Plus, it's cheap compared to the exotic stuff and can be found fairly easily. The Redline MTL is probably better, but more $ and harder to find. With your cold(er) climate, I would probably consider the Redline D4 ATF. It will perform better in the sub-zero temps, yet still offer the gear protection of a true GL4 gear oil.

[Bert]

If you're a hot-rodder and have upgraded the motor I would be paying special attention to advice on here but otherwise the OEM specs were Mercon ATF for manual trannys. I've always run synthetics (ATF versions mind you) but that might be overkill if you're on a budget and/or your seals and gaskets leak.

[Advancedynamix]

I have tested several different trans lubes on the track in My G-series. The best shifting and least amount of brass fragments in the lube after serious abuse are when I use Valvoline synthetic motorcycle oil 20-50wt. The motorcycle oil has friction additives for the wet clutch in bikes, and this seems to work well with syncro transmissions. It was a night and day difference between this and both ATF and gear oil. I tried several ATF compositions, both organic and synthetic and the same with the gear oil. I have 10-30 weight Castrol GTX in my stock 4 speed Festiva tranny and it shifts very nice. I may try Rotella T next, because all my sportbike friends say their bikes shift better with the Rotella than with bike oil (I run Mobile 1 in my VFR, but I may swap it out for rotella too).

[Movin]

Yes, 0w20 mobile 1 synthetic for engines. It goes on sale now and then and the price difference between it and redline with little improvement possible is hard to ignore. I have not tried the bike oil in my
trans but if the price is right?

My honda 650 is full of redline, but takes very little oil..

[mikeyjd]

Thanks allot for the feedback guys I'm learning allot about my Festiva and the options available since I started frequenting this site.

[Bert]

Well I have to say the opinions on this topic are really varied and mostly came from gearheads with a considerable amount of knowledge and experience. And here I'd been thinking that if you didn't religiously stick with the OEM-recommended lubes a/the tranny would self-destruct. Someone should "sticky" this thread! The beauty of owning 'off warranty' cars is that experimentation has it's own rewards.
Truth be known when Alec Issagonis created the first Brit front wheel drive car in 1959 he ingeniously bathed his trannies in engine oil. And this was dual-role engine oil in that the physical motor spun overtop of the drive gears. That environment would be as rude as it gets on finely-machined parts and yet I don't recall hearing complaints during the 30 year production period of these cars.

[mikeyjd]

Yes, 0w20 mobile 1 synthetic for engines. It goes on sale now and then and the price difference between it and redline with little improvement possible is hard to ignore. I have not tried the bike oil in my
trans but if the price is right?

My honda 650 is full of redline, but takes very little oil..

I bought a 5 quarts container tonight to do my engine and tranny. $24 included the filter! and it's the fuel economy specialized kind, so i'm pretty excited

[mikeyjd]

Well I have to say the opinions on this topic are really varied and mostly came from gearheads with a considerable amount of knowledge and experience. And here I'd been thinking that if you didn't religiously stick with the OEM-recommended lubes a/the tranny would self-destruct. Someone should "sticky" this thread! The beauty of owning 'off warranty' cars is that experimentation has it's own rewards.
Truth be known when Alec Issagonis created the first Brit front wheel drive car in 1959 he ingeniously bathed his trannies in engine oil. And this was dual-role engine oil in that the physical motor spun overtop of the drive gears. That environment would be as rude as it gets on finely-machined parts and yet I don't recall hearing complaints during the 30 year production period of these cars.

A sticky for things like this could be a really huge help for people like me who don't seem to be able to get the search function to do anything but bring up a million unrelated posts.

[mikeyjd]

I added 0w20 mobile 1 full synthetic today and I'd like to say that I'm impressed by the throttle response and how buttery the shifting is compared what I was running in it before. Thanks Movin