Help me choose: Manual Gear oil for '03 G35

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: NemesisBob
I'm sorry, I'm knew here and don't know the posters and Mola's credentials.

Mola is a formulator, so I would trust his recommendations without reservation. Of course, if Red Line isn't your thing, there are lots of other options, and Mola isn't a Red Line shill by any stretch of the imagination. He's just stating that's a good option. Whitewolf also knows his stuff, and Castrol fluids are very good, and an excellent option here in Canada thanks to their widespread availability.

Canadian Tire, Partsource, Walmart Canada, and many small shops have a very wide variety of Castrol products. If you can't find what you need, perhaps give Wakefield a call and see what they recommend for a product and where it can be purchased.

 

[MolaKule]

Originally Posted By: NemesisBob

... Please share any links or info, I just don't want to put a too thin oil or oil with too much lube and cause damage.



As far as the AW and friction modification packages for Castrol, or Redline, or Amsoil, they have essentially the same level of treatment for each viscosity.

The only difference to be found will be in the base oil viscosity mix that is used.

Nissan transmissions can be finnicky and a 10.5 cST fluid such as the Redline MTL 75W80, or the Amsoil MTF, or GM Synchromeshes, or the dedicated Castrol MTF equivalent would probably work well in the cold Canadian winters.

As others have stated as well, my experience with Nissan MTFs has not been a good one. I had a Frontier and did not like the shift performance or the durability of their fluids.

 

[Garak]

If you want to see oil company marketing, Mola, check Castrol up here. You can't swing a dead cat without hitting a Castrol sign.

I can think of very few independents that don't have Castrol signs all over the place and/or advertise it as their service fill.

 

[GiveMeAVowel]

Is Castrol SynTRANS 75w, 75w-80, or 75w-85 available in Canada?
There are nothing but glowing reviews of this product in all those weights but it is nearly impossible to find in the USA.

 

[NemesisBob]

Originally Posted By: GiveMeAVowel
Is Castrol SynTRANS 75w, 75w-80, or 75w-85 available in Canada?
There are nothing but glowing reviews of this product in all those weights but it is nearly impossible to find in the USA.



I must have called over 20 parts stores this week, nobody stocks Castrol gear oils and besides Redline, nobody even stocks 75w, 75w-80 or even 75W-85 of other brands. Went to Canadian Tire and Walmart, nothing. Now I'm at Castrol Canada website and there are zero gear oils available here other than diff oil. Can anyone confirm if any Castrol GL-4's are even available in Canada anymore?

 

[MolaKule]

You may have to order directly from Redline or Amazon as many have mentioned here before.

Send a PM to Pablo (Amsoil Rep) or Garak (lives in Canada).

 

[Garak]

As Mola indicated, Amazon is a good source, and if you want Amsoil, ask Pablo. For Canadian sourcing, check your local distributors.

For Shell, check the local Shell distributor, or better yet, email Shell, since in Canada, there are two tiers of Shell distributors, some of which cannot carry Pennzoil-Quaker State products, which limits choices.

This link will help you track down a local Imperial Oil distributor for Mobil products. Also, Google Wakefield Canada. I know they have operations in Quebec and they can help you a lot more with respect to Castrol products than can the Castrol Canada website, which is a bit lacking, to say the least.

Also, Napa Canada is sometimes a good place to check. Also, there's a company called Oil Mart in Canada. It may not be the most convenient for you, but you're already in a bit of a quandary. At the very least, they can give you some guidance on what products are available, since they deal with several oil distributors.

 

[jaj]

Castrol Syntrans 75W is remarkably similar to Ford Motorcraft XT-11-QDC transmission fluid, which is available from your friendly neighborhood Ford parts department. In fact, the Syntrans in question was (and may still be) the only gear oil on the market other than the Motorcraft product that meets Ford engineering spec WSS-M2C200-D2.

There was a marketing piece on the Castrol website back in about 2010 that talked about the close cooperation between Castrol and Ford Europe to develop a DCT fluid for the new (at the time) DCT's that Ford was putting in some of the European products. The Ford DCT's are dry clutch, so the fluid is just a synchromesh gear oil product, not a wet-clutch product.

The hint here is that if you want to try the Castrol 75W, just buy some of the Motorcraft product - it'll work substantially the same.


Originally Posted By: NemesisBob
Originally Posted By: GiveMeAVowel
Is Castrol SynTRANS 75w, 75w-80, or 75w-85 available in Canada?
There are nothing but glowing reviews of this product in all those weights but it is nearly impossible to find in the USA.



I must have called over 20 parts stores this week, nobody stocks Castrol gear oils and besides Redline, nobody even stocks 75w, 75w-80 or even 75W-85 of other brands. Went to Canadian Tire and Walmart, nothing. Now I'm at Castrol Canada website and there are zero gear oils available here other than diff oil. Can anyone confirm if any Castrol GL-4's are even available in Canada anymore?

 

[badtlc]

It would be nice to know the viscosity of the OEM nissan. Just because they spec 75W-90 doesn't mean that is what is used. VW specs the same 75W-90 GL4 but then go and use fluid that is synchromesh levels thin.

 

[MolaKule]

Originally Posted By: badtlc
It would be nice to know the viscosity of the OEM nissan. Just because they spec 75W-90 doesn't mean that is what is used. VW specs the same 75W-90 GL4 but then go and use fluid that is synchromesh levels thin.


The viscosity at 100C for the op's vehicle runs from 10.5 cST to 12.0 cSt which puts in the 75W80 to 75W85 range.

I have found that most of the Nissan Manual trannies prefer a 10.0 cSt MTF for all weather operation.

Any of the fluids below should work:


Quote:
F. Valvoline MTF Part Number 811095 9.2 cSt

G. The next higher viscosity MTL would be Pennzoil Synchromesh 9.3 cSt


H. The next group of MTL’s are in the 10.x cSt (SAE 75W80) range:

1. Redline MTL 75W80

2. Amsoil MTF (9.7 cSt)

3. GM Synchromesh’s

4. Volvo MTF 645

5. Fuchs TITAN SINTOFLUID SAE 75W-80 synthetic MTF (Carries a GL-5 rating as well)

6. Lodexol (Morris Lubricants) MTF

 

[NemesisBob]

Originally Posted By: badtlc
It would be nice to know the viscosity of the OEM nissan. Just because they spec 75W-90 doesn't mean that is what is used. VW specs the same 75W-90 GL4 but then go and use fluid that is synchromesh levels thin.


They don't spec 75W-90, they spec 75W-85 which is the only fluid available at the dealer. Parts guy told me it is a synthetic blend, not sure how reliable that info is but gray hairs give him some credibility , and is strictly stated to use OEM only in the owners manuals of all recent Nissan/Infiniti 6 speeds. I'll be going with the Nissan OEM Multi HQ to start, and if it doesn't solve my problem will try Redline MTL 75w80.

 

[CELICA_XX]

Originally Posted By: NemesisBob
Yes, sorry we are talking about GL-4.


I'm surprised there has been such minimal discussion about the Amsoil GL-4 !!!

 

[GiveMeAVowel]

If I was under warranty of any kind I would use the OEM Nissan fluid, but after that any synthetic 75w80/75w-85 GL-4 would do the trick. It would seem like Castrol Syntrans 75w-85 GL-4 would be a good match. But any similar fluid would be fine, as long as it is
a GL-4 ONLY spec.

 

[NemesisBob]

Just to update you guys and this thread as too many threads here end up with no update or conclusion, I finally had the fluid swapped on Friday. We took a small sample of the old fluid and compared it to the OEM Nissan HQ fluid and there was no doubt what was in there was visibly thicker than the OEM going in, mechanic said looks like a 75w-90. Why on earth a Nissan dealer would put a 90 instead of the owners manual spec'd 85 is strange. Anyway, I had only 3 liters of OEM thinking it was enough and was short about 1/2 quart due to some spillage so added 1/2 quart of leftover Syntorq of same viscosity until it seeped out of the fill hole.

I took it for a drive up and down the lot, cold, right after the change, initially I felt no difference other than the shifter feeling like it had less resistance but the 2nd gear clash was still there, so I was disappointed. Mechanic told me to drive for 50-100 miles over the weekend to purge any old fluid remaining from the synchro hubs, sleeves and rings . So this morning I am happy to report first few cold shifts were flawless and no more locked out of first gear until a complete stop. OEM fluid worked perfect and only $14CAD/quart much cheaper than the Redline and more importantly, easier to source. Obviously like Molakule has already stated, this transmission does not react well to anything over 75W-85, maybe even a 75W-80 would be even better but not sure for sheering with long term use in hot weather. Thanks to everyone for their input especially molakule for his fantastic gear oil viscosity list.

 

[MolaKule]

Ok, so what is the majority fluid and brand that is in there now?

Since the fluid was not analyzed, how do we know it was a 75W90?

It could have oxidized to the point that it thickened.

 

[NemesisBob]

Originally Posted By: MolaKule
Ok, so what is the majority fluid and brand that is in there now?

Since the fluid was not analyzed, how do we know it was a 75W90?

It could have oxidized to the point that it thickened.


It is the 3 quarts OEM Nissan HQ 75w-85 fluid and a bit less than 1/2 quart (3-400ml) Syntorq 75w-85 that I had leftover from my Vibe fluid change that is in there now. Like I said, we spilled some in the transfer process.

We do not know what was in there, like I said we are 'speculating'. The old fluid was not in there too long, less than 10,000km, (entire car only has 59,000km) it was very clean and even coming out the hole you could see it was thicker. The OEM Nissan HQ going in was pretty thin.

 

[MolaKule]

Quote:
...maybe even a 75W-80 would be even better but not sure for sheering with long term use in hot weather.


Something like Redline or Amsoil 75W80 should work well in the cold winter.

As I stated before, with the mix of modern base oils, shear resistant VIIs, and better AW and friction additives, a 10.0 cSt MTF should present no problems.

 

[CBR.worm]

As an aside, I buy my MTF at the dealer. One time they gave me Nissan GL5 differential oil. I told them that was the wrong stuff. They said that was what they put in all the MT's. I gave him the part number I was looking for, then he went in the back and found the correct gear oil.

 

[NemesisBob]

Originally Posted By: CBR.worm
As an aside, I buy my MTF at the dealer. One time they gave me Nissan GL5 differential oil. I told them that was the wrong stuff. They said that was what they put in all the MT's. I gave him the part number I was looking for, then he went in the back and found the correct gear oil.


Well, that is scary. You'd think the dealer who works on hundreds of the same cars over and over would know what fluids to use since they all pretty much use the same across the whole line. Thankfully GL-5 is impossible to miss as the smell is unmistakable, that was not what came out of my tranny. I guess you gotta do your own due diligence.

 

[GiveMeAVowel]

Originally Posted By: CBR.worm
As an aside, I buy my MTF at the dealer. One time they gave me Nissan GL5 differential oil. I told them that was the wrong stuff. They said that was what they put in all the MT's. I gave him the part number I was looking for, then he went in the back and found the correct gear oil.


Typical incompetence at the dealership, the worst part is that with their fast and easy to use internal parts look up it takes only a minute or two for them to KNOW EXACTLY what the right part is for ANY of their models made in the past 10 or 15 years, all you need is the VIN. That is just plain lazy, and unfortunately it could shorten the life or damage the transmission if you use the GL-5 or any version that is not labeled GL-4 ONLY, no GL-4/5, GL-4+, ect.
Probably one of THE most important things to remember about synchronized manual transaxles in most modern cars.