What Redline 75W-110 looks like after 30k miles

1JZ_E46 · Aug 26, 2018

Did the front and rear diffs in my X5 today. Both are a pain... no drain plug in the rear and hard to access fill plug on the front. Redline 75W-110 was in there for 30k miles (previous fill was FF until 78k). Surprised how dark it was. The front was noticeably more brown in color.

Rear:

Front:

Fresh Redline 75W-110 went back in.

oldhp · Aug 26, 2018

What weight is actually called for F/R?

1JZ_E46 · Aug 26, 2018

Originally Posted By: oldhp
What weight is actually called for F/R?

Castrol Syntrax Longlife 75W-90 is the OEM spec’d fluid per BMW (“lifetime” fluid...).

chefwong · Aug 26, 2018

The front is dark just due to nature of the location. It's the castrol saf...it's anywhere between what I would call a dark red to light/darkish golenish brown.
EDIT. I just reialized the pics you sent were of the Redline.
Sorry, no clue what color the Redline is straight from the bottle.
Maybe it's darker cause you did not suction out as much as you thought you did when you did the 1st diff oil change ?

MaximaGuy · Aug 26, 2018

Thanks for sharing these pictures as my ride has RL 75W110 on transfer and diff currently.
Previous fill of Amsoil 75W110 came out with a slight brown tinge unlike the pictures.
Color isn't a reflection of well the fluid held up but obviously its the one that most relate to as dirty fluid.

chefwong · Aug 26, 2018

MG . For the 75W110 fill, what doe your spec fall for.

In one of ours, I put 75/110 SVG in lieu of speced 75W/90. I felt the drag. Ended going back to 75W90

1JZ_E46 · Aug 26, 2018

Originally Posted By: chefwong
MG . For the 75W110 fill, what doe your spec fall for.

In one of ours, I put 75/110 SVG in lieu of speced 75W/90. I felt the drag. Ended going back to 75W90

See above. OEM is 75W-90. I doubt you could feel drag betweeen the two. Essentially impossible. Probably placebo effect.

benjy · Aug 26, 2018

the Ester based Redline lube prolly cleaned the diff!! i put their 75-90 F + R of my 2011 SV with the Dana as it gets used as a daily driver + little hauling + no towing. the spicer-titan alum cover i installed noted 75-90 synthetic in the enclosed literature, dana website states similar. the 75-110 ia a good midchoice rather than the thick 75-140 mineral OE lube IMO

Artem · Aug 26, 2018

I mean.... 30,000 miles is a lot, considering the insane RPMs of the gears inside the diff. It would be more shocking if it came out looking "clean".

1JZ_E46 · Aug 26, 2018

Originally Posted By: benjy
the Ester based Redline lube prolly cleaned the diff

You’re probably right... Cleaned out all the old deposits left behind by the OEM fluid. Esters do a great job of cleaning.

StevieC · Aug 26, 2018

I just changed the Factory fill on my Highlander today in the Diff/Transfer case and it has less than 6,000 miles (10,000km) on it, to get the first round of break-in wear out. It has whatever Toyota uses (most likely XOM), 75w85 in both and it came out dark brown full of filings in the oil and attached to the magnet plugs. I put in Amsoil Severe Gear 75w90 which went in almost clear with a gold hue to it. (Amsoil application guide calls for 75w90 as the replacement).

It was a royal PITA to get to the transfer case fill port. I'm glad I bought the Severe Gear in the squeeze bag with the pointy top. I used this attached to some tubing to get it to the fill port so I could squeeze the bag from down below. No way you could get a bottle in there let alone this squeeze bag. Would if kill them to give us a bit more space to service these fluids?

barkingspider · Aug 26, 2018

I think redline would last a longer 30k miles? Thanks for the pics

MaximaGuy · Aug 26, 2018

Originally Posted By: StevieC
It was a royal PITA to get to the transfer case fill port.

Honestly it is a PITA, 15/16" size is uncommon and the drain bolt is as soft as butter. Wrenchs will sooner or later destroy the bolts.
Bought a low profile 15/16" socket and that greatly helped with those bolts given that the exhaust runs right next to the x-case.

DGXR · Aug 27, 2018

I can say with confidence that the fluid is dark mostly because the previous fill was run 78,000 miles. What you have there is a flushing out of the old wasted fluid from the previous fill. Exact same thing happened with my Corvette: factory fill was run 52,000 miles and was black as tar when I checked it (the LSD uses a clutch pack). I did a drain & fill, ran it for 12,000 miles and it came out looking exactly like your picture: pretty dark but not quite tar. The current fluid -- which is the 2nd change I've done -- has been run 10,000 miles and is still perfectly clean.

What Redline 75W-110 looks like after 30k miles

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