Lets talk gear oil...
02-01-2011, 11:12 AM
#1
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Lets talk gear oil...
New guy so take it easy on me...
I did a quick search and did not find anything I was really looking for but maybe I was not putting in the proper terms, so I will just ask.
I just picked up a 2000 4Runner...3.4, 5 Speed, 4WD(165K on the clock) and its having some difficulties shifting. When cold, it requires considerable force to get into 2nd gear. After a couple miles or maybe a half dozen shifts, it loosens up and is fine until it cools down completely. Its not like shifter bending force required but it does take a good tug of the shifter to get it to go. Does not grind or clunk and none of the other gears have any issues, cold or warm.
After doing some reading, I have found some that say switching to synthetic in the transmission may alleviate some, or all, of the problems I am having.
My questions I have are; What causes the transmission to do this? Can it be fixed without a tear down? Will changing to a synthetic help any? What brand of synthetic should I use?
Thanks!
I did a quick search and did not find anything I was really looking for but maybe I was not putting in the proper terms, so I will just ask.
I just picked up a 2000 4Runner...3.4, 5 Speed, 4WD(165K on the clock) and its having some difficulties shifting. When cold, it requires considerable force to get into 2nd gear. After a couple miles or maybe a half dozen shifts, it loosens up and is fine until it cools down completely. Its not like shifter bending force required but it does take a good tug of the shifter to get it to go. Does not grind or clunk and none of the other gears have any issues, cold or warm.
After doing some reading, I have found some that say switching to synthetic in the transmission may alleviate some, or all, of the problems I am having.
My questions I have are; What causes the transmission to do this? Can it be fixed without a tear down? Will changing to a synthetic help any? What brand of synthetic should I use?
Thanks!
Last edited by JerrfyLube; 02-01-2011 at 11:15 AM.
02-01-2011, 11:33 AM
#3
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I run Royal Purple full synthetic in my tranny and tcase and love it. Something else you can do in the mean time is put the tcase in N and the tranny in 1st while it's warming up. The tranny will spin and help warm up the lube, just be sure no to leave it unattended, used to do that on an old beat up Scout in the winter since it refused to shift cold.
02-01-2011, 11:44 AM
#5
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Man I can't remember, I do know there was a debate about GL-4 and GL-5 but damned if I can remember. I want to say yes it is a GL-4 gear oil but don't quote me on that one. I've had the same stuff in both my 86 pickup (22re, 5 speed, 4x4) and the 89 4runner (same set up) in both the trannies and tcases. Never had any issues. In fact the shifting was much easier after the RP oil was put in both of them. The 86 had about 160,000 on it when I sold it and the 89 currently has 235,000. The only issue with the 89 right now is a tiny little leak at the drain plug on the tcase but that might not be due to the new fluids, had them in there for the last oh....... 20,000 miles or so?
02-01-2011, 11:52 AM
#6
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sounds like you live in a cold climate? put the Tcase in nuetral and the trans in first gear while the truck is warming up. That will solve the issues.
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02-01-2011, 11:56 AM
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02-01-2011, 12:00 PM
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02-01-2011, 12:30 PM
#10
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Now that you mention that I have had a couple of times where the tcase wouldn't go from low to hi without some playful clutch movement. I wonder if I should go with the Redline in the tcase.....
Oh and as a side note if there are lunch box (automatic) lockers in the diffs then use dino juice, they HATE synthetic and refuse to unlock with it in there.
Oh and as a side note if there are lunch box (automatic) lockers in the diffs then use dino juice, they HATE synthetic and refuse to unlock with it in there.
02-01-2011, 12:56 PM
#11
I haven't had experience with any but the Valvoline full synthetic 75W-90 GL-5. Which seemed to work alright. I switched to non-synth 85W-90 GL-4 to see if it would improve shift quality. It seemed to, but not drastically. I may have even been imagining it. That's the rumor anyway, supposedly GL-4 is good for smoother shifting. I'm just not sure I buy that one anymore, and GL-5 wasn't much worse(if at all). And at the cost of being less effective at preventing wear, I don't think it's quite the bargain I used to.
So, the next time I change it I'm going back to full synthetic. I plan on using the Richmond Gear full synthetic GL-6 high performance manual transmission fluid. I'm not fooling around anymore, having had to replace my transmission once already. I filled the junkyard replacement tranny with the GL-4 stuff because I had some left in the gallon jug, and another gallon of it was all I could afford at the time(I don't like mixing oils, and it was still cheaper than full synthetic, but by no means cheap). I'm just getting my money's worth out of it for a few more months, then it's outta there!
http://www.richmondgear.com/0002pdfs/OILSANDLUBE.pdf
So, the next time I change it I'm going back to full synthetic. I plan on using the Richmond Gear full synthetic GL-6 high performance manual transmission fluid. I'm not fooling around anymore, having had to replace my transmission once already. I filled the junkyard replacement tranny with the GL-4 stuff because I had some left in the gallon jug, and another gallon of it was all I could afford at the time(I don't like mixing oils, and it was still cheaper than full synthetic, but by no means cheap). I'm just getting my money's worth out of it for a few more months, then it's outta there!
http://www.richmondgear.com/0002pdfs/OILSANDLUBE.pdf
Try that. Because mine does the same thing when it's cold out, synthetic fluid or not. I live in a similar climate too, nothing below 20's(except for a few nights a year at best). And there's not a damn thing wrong with my transmission, I can guarantee you that. I took the case apart and inspected it thoroughly when I purchased it.
Last edited by MudHippy; 02-01-2011 at 01:01 PM.
02-01-2011, 03:20 PM
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Changed it out and while it was not completely cold on the initial trial, it seems to be a 100% improvement! Shifts considerably smoother in every gear and the 2nd gear tug seems to be 95% eliminated! 
02-01-2011, 04:02 PM
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