Trans oil in front diff? What the!

seagull · Post by **seagull** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 1:49 am

Draining the oils in my import motor & gear box I found auto trans oil in the front diff . Had 1.5lts in there >No smell of gear oil in eather auto or diff .
no big bits of metal came out some particals on magnet ( plug )

so what do you think

In there from new ?

dam jap did not know what he was doing ?

at least he changed the oil for oil and not water to screw aussi boy ( ! )

Just dont care as me keep for less that 80 k and piss off any way !

This red oil better for difffff !!!!! as this part change gears many times oil thin so make go very fast ! , thick oil slow down car ! > my mate from China tell me this to night !

what other strange things have you found ?

seagull

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 2:08 am

Mabey it's Redline Racing oil. I think this stuff is actually red, but Tim_81_coupe is abit of an authority on this subject....he will know.

seagull · Post by **seagull** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 2:25 am

No its trans oil

I have seen many gear boxes blown up from this product you say .I would not put that in any thing I own thats for sure .have you ever seen a gear box that has been stripped down that has ran that product ?

Craigus · Post by **Craigus** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 7:18 am

I'm not keen on the concept either, but I do know, for example, that it was Mazda's recommendation for the transaxle in the early manual FWD 323's.

I think they did decide this was a bad idea and issue a revision on it though.

Phizinza · Post by **Phizinza** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 10:12 am

So does the front diff in new model subies have seprate oil? Or are you talking about the whole gearbox having this oil. I have heard and seen people putting auto trans oil in there manual (it is a lot thinner then manual box oil.) Apparently it makes the gearbox shift faster and smoother, I always thought you needed thick oil as the syncro's use it as a friction plate. I dunno what your on about the redline oil. Theres a reason they use it in race cars. It's even better for shifting and keeping the gears intact. Why would they charge $100 for a bottle and have A LOT of race drivers saying its the best? Or are you saying its good? Or bad? I can't quite understand what you were tryig to say. Oh well.

Suby Wan Kenobi · Post by **Suby Wan Kenobi** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 11:09 am

Having trans fluid in the front diff of the auto means than one of the seals has perished and is allowing the fluid to drip into the front diff. On the Suby autos the front diff has a metal cylinder passing through it that has the drive shafts for the auto and the pressure lines from the pump and the converter fluid galleries in it. There are 3 seals in that area and will set you back about $80 i think to replace them

tim_81coupe · Post by **tim_81coupe** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 1:01 pm

Suby Wan Kenobi wrote:Having trans fluid in the front diff of the auto means than one of the seals has perished and is allowing the fluid to drip into the front diff. On the Suby autos the front diff has a metal cylinder passing through it that has the drive shafts for the auto and the pressure lines from the pump and the converter fluid galleries in it. There are 3 seals in that area and will set you back about $80 i think to replace them

Thats exactly what I was gonna say....

The Redline stuff I use is a yellowish red, noticeably different to ATF.

Phizinza wrote:So does the front diff in new model subies have seprate oil?

Read up dude, every Subaru auto box has seperate fluids for the diff and trans. Even my old 1980 model had this.

Phizinza wrote:I have heard and seen people putting auto trans oil in there manual

Were they Fords or Holdens? The recommended oil for the clunky old T5 gearbox (as seen in EA-BA and VN-VZ I think) is Dexron 3. There are a few other manuals out there that I've seen running the stuff too.

MUDRAT · Post by **MUDRAT** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 1:59 pm

tim_81coupe wrote:The recommended oil for the clunky old T5 gearbox (as seen in EA-BA and VN-VZ I think) is Dexron 3.

Really? How bizar. That's not the 'box they had all the failures with was it? The one they build at the B/W plant in Albury?

Automatic Subarus have separate oil for the diff and transaxle. Manual transaxles share a common sump.

tim_81coupe · Post by **tim_81coupe** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 4:27 pm

I'm not sure if it was built in Albury, they are a Tremec unit and they did have heaps of problems with the earlier ones. I've seen a near stock 4L multipoint EB motor strip first gear on one - they say Subaru gearboxes are weak!!

coupe · Post by **coupe** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 6:52 pm

When i had my auto serviced they told me the 3 speed hyro was the same as the vn commodores minus the electric overdrive
a different version of the old 350 turbo.
Either way there a bland gearbox

seagull · Post by **seagull** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 11:40 pm

The oil in the auto was the correct amount / oil in the diff was the correct amount as well .
again there is no smell of gear oil ( from the diff ) & I have not seen any one else have a rs legacy come in with auto trans oil in the front diff .

I think the jap had drained the gear oil & filled it with trans oil when the servicing the car .

mattl200 · Post by **mattl200** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 9:47 pm

my ford laser ran auto trans fluid for gearbox witch included the diff that was manual.

Gremlins · Post by **Gremlins** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 8:00 am

When I picked up my L-Series with auto trans the front diff was full of ATF also. It seems who ever was servicing it for the last owner didn't know what was going on so just filled ATF throughout everything. The ATF in the front diff might just be a not so uncommon mistake that get's made with these cars.