Hello, I'm new to the forum and have a question. I've been searching the forum and cannot find what I'm looking for. I recently bought a 1985 Toyota 4runner, shortly after, I had the transmission worked on because the 5th gear was going out. When I got my runner back my fifth gear was good but now my 1st and 2nd gears were giving me issues. My mechanic said that they were sticking because of the cold weather. His fix was to put ATF in my manual transmission. Has anyone ever done this and will it cause any long term problems? It makes sense to me that due to the thick gear oil and the cold weather it would cause sticking. I'm also new to owning a manual transmission so this may be normal. Any help or advise is appreciated.

 

I don't think Toyota has ever reccomended using ATF in their truck trannies, but I know that some manual car trannies use ATF.
My Ford Escorts (Mazda clone) 5 speed trannies call for Dextron III/Mercon ATF, and these transmissions last 250,000 miles+.
If your trans syncros are happy with the ATF, I think you're probably OK.

How cold of weather are we talking about?

Heavy duty use in hot weather might require a change back to regular gear oil.

 

When its super cold out, I'll put the tcase in neutral and the tranny in any gear. Like 2nd. That'll help spin the gear oil and warm it up.

 

Thanks for the response, I live in NM so lately its been dropping into the mid 20s. Like it said in my initial post I'm new to driving with a manual transmission but my shifting problem does appear to be caused by the weather. The sticking of the gears always happens first thing in the morning. I have another question, will changing my transmission oil twice a year cause any problems, switching from ATF to regular gear oil?

 

Throw some Redline MT-90 in there. I had a tough time getting into first gear and second was a pain in cold weather until I switched. Still not buttery smooth when cold, but 10x better. I did this based on a bunch of internet research and many people swear by it, including myself now.

 

Won't cause any problems.

 

Also how many miles are on your rig. I believe it is called a shifter seat bushing??? The thingy that dangles down off the top of your trany top cover. Probably wrong name for it. Anyways these do wear out. Was it replaced when you had the work done. If not they are not that expensive and are fairly easy to change. I believe the marlin crawler ones are some of the more popular ones.

 

Thanks for all the input. I picked up my runner today which now has the ATF in it and it is super easy to shift gears. I started looking in Redline and it has some really good reviews so Ill probably switch from the ATF to Redline before summer. My runner has around 260000 miles on it and as far as I know there was no shifter seat bushing replaced but ill look into it. Thank again.

 

I would also recommend the redline MT 90, make sure its GL4 compatible. I would replace the shifter bushing and seat with ones from Marlin Crawler.

These are some of the first things I do when I get a new to me truck.

 

I've never heard of putting ATF in a manual trans. Interesting thread!

..... I can't believe I never thought of this. Where I used to live, we would regularly see -40F temps, and after work the tranny was always stiff and hard to shift. I put Auto trans in neutral when its cold while warming up the vehicle. It makes a night and day difference.

 

I know people up here that religiously add ATF (a quart) to their ford mustang 5.0 tranny's.