what does one put in ones differential?

the manual says SAE 90, halfrauds says 10w40 motor oil as does unipart. i'm inclined to believe volvo but SAE 90 (or API GL5) seems unavailable everywhere.

a man in unipart says its motorbike oil and i should try a bike shop.

anyone know what should be put in and if so where it can be obtained?

cheers

I used Castrol 80W90 Differential Oil in mine, hellfrauds said that or their own version, the Castrol wasn't much more expensive, and they didn't have any of the hellfrauds own in stock anyway!

10W40 engine oil is WRONG.


don't you have a store nearby that sells 'COMMA' oils?? thats quite generic brand but very good quality and they certainly have GL5 gear oil.
(commonly referred to as EP80)

Greetings Wouter

Yeah, rear diffs want GL5 oil, Ep80w-90. I quite like the Castrol Syntrax stuff personally, which is GL4 and GL5 compatible and is 70w90. Its a little bit more expensive than the mineral stuff but you only need 2 bottles.

antiekeradio wrote:10W40 engine oil is WRONG.

Right

But you can put that motor oil to your gearbox and it is much better than automatic transmission fluid that is typically put into there.

jtbo wrote:it is much better than automatic transmission fluid that is typically put into there.

ATF is what's specified by Volvo for all M4x gearboxes

cheers

James

foggyjames wrote:

jtbo wrote:it is much better than automatic transmission fluid that is typically put into there.

ATF is what's specified by Volvo for all M4x gearboxes

cheers

James

Yes it is, and it is not best option, specially for these older gearboxes

now you're talking gearbox, thats different from differential housing.

differential accepts neither ATF nor regular engine oil...

PS did you know there are different types of ATF. if you put in a friction-modified type, the gearchange characteristics might be affected indeed.

the prescribed ATF A/A is a non-friction-modified, so any other type you would be putting in should be non-FM as well.

greetings Wouter

jtbo wrote:Yes it is, and it is not best option, specially for these older gearboxes

What makes you say that? I was willing to trust what the people who made the gearboxes say Loads of yanks thought they knew better, put gear oil in....they now have dead M46s.

cheers

James

Ford has 'special' gearbox oil that looks, smells and feels almost suspiciously like ATF thats quite yankproof, you'd say

You must use a friction modified ATF, like Dexron. Don't use TQF, which is ATF type F and is a non-friction modified oil. For some reason Castrol on their site now recommend that you use a specific type of engine oil in your gearbox, precisely because they say Volvo say NOT to use TQF.

Definitely gear oil is far too thick for the Volvo gearboxes and will swiftly kill yours if you use it Like Foggy says, people thought they were being clever and then lived to regret it.

foggyjames wrote:

jtbo wrote:Yes it is, and it is not best option, specially for these older gearboxes

What makes you say that? I was willing to trust what the people who made the gearboxes say Loads of yanks thought they knew better, put gear oil in....they now have dead M46s.

cheers

James

Guys in here have put motor oil in their gear boxes and boxes work better with less noise and no problems and we are talking Turbo's gearboxes, maybe different from M47, I think M46, but really don't think M47 would be more demanding.

There is some things that car manufacturers do from various of reasons that are not always best possible solution, I'm not saying this is it, but what I have heard from others this seem not to be bad at all.

Differential oil is indeed very thick and nobody should ever try to put that into gear box, it won't work. At cold weather (-30C) even ATF is very very thick, almost impossible to get gears on, maybe some motor oils work better in cold too, there is 5w oils available