Fluid recommendations differential / trans / transaxle ?

[Rayyy]

I’ll be changing the fluids in the transmission, font/rear differential, transaxle/transfer case… and wondering which fluids the cool people are using?

I’m thinking of using Amsoil:

Front diff: Amsoil 80w-90 Severe Gear (2qts)

Rear diff: Amsoil Sever Gear 75w-110 (3qts)

Transaxle: Amsoil 75w-90 Manual Trans & Transaxle (3qts)

Transmission: Amsoil ATF Fuel Efficient - blue logo - (6qts)

Anyone else running something different?

 

[nonickatall]

From my personal view: It's not so important which brand you use, it's more important that you look that the oil has the correct specification and that you change it regulary....

It's better to you to use a cheap transmission oil and change it ons the year, than to use a very expensive one and exchange it only every 100,000 Miles.

 

[Rayyy]

So, drop the trans pan once per year? Does that apply to the differential and transfer case fluid too?

 

[nonickatall]

Depends at least on the Miles your driving.
"Per year" is not precise. I mean those oils get not bad by time.
If you use the car only 2000 miles the year it doesn't make sense to exchange the transmission fluid every year, but I would say if your drive above 15000 miles per year, I would change the transmission fluid once the year.
As well the question is, how you use the car, if you use it often for towing I would change more often.
I'm not sure if I would change the transfer case fluid in the same interval. I'm not sure if the Escalade Transfer Case contains clutches.
The oil of the differential, I would change when I buy a used car, because you don't never know what the people before did, but than I think it's enough to change that every 30,000 miles.

 

[Fless]

Probably not a "cool" person but, yes, we run something different: the fluids that GM specs. For example, your two-speed AUTO transfer case takes 2 quarts of Auto-Trak II (blue) fluid. The rear diff spec weight should be 75W-90 synthetic, etc.

 

[repairman54]

No overpriced boutique fluids in my vehicles. Only spec'd weights in a full synthetic done via the severe service schedule has kept my stuff running 200k miles in many vehicles.
My old '99 Yuk went over 200k and sold it running fine with the original drivetrain intact and I tow stuff. '11 Tahoe at 150k and going strong. Same results in many cars also.

 

[Sam Harris]

I use AC Delco for just about everything, with the recommended, specific weights and viscosity, etc.. with that being said, I recently changed the rear diff, while replacing the cover, and used Amsoil severe gear 75/90 for it. I figured that’s not something I will be doing very regularly, and worth it to get a bit of extra protection. It had previously been exchanged approximately 30-35k miles ago, with genuine AC Delco gear oil, and I was actually a bit surprised at how dirty it looked when I changed it. Although, I suspect my heavy right foot has a lot to do with that…! As has been stated, the most important factors are using a quality product, with the correct specifications, and quantity, and doing so at the prescribed intervals.

 

[Power_Dr]

I was going to change the transmission fluid and filter. I was looking at GM fluid, but not sure to go with the original or the synthetic one. I wasn't going to do a complete fluid exchange so I was wondering about filling it back up with the synthetic fluid and mixing that with the original non-synthetic.

 

[SnowDrifter]

I run similar in mine

Amsoil 75w140 in the diffs, with a slight overfill to make up for slower drainback on the thicker fluid (~10mm over stock. That nets out to the top of the fill port on the front, and bottom of the fill port on the rear. No dipstick method). Can argue semantics on it, but at the end of the day, my buddies have commented that I have the least shavings they've ever seen on a diff service. Actually discovered that one when I was trying to stretch my front diff for some extra life after the PO ran it try. Found that combo gave me lowest noise + lowest readings on a temp gun (this was very unscientific with a lot of uncontrolled variables please don't take this as gospel)

Amsoil ATF in the transmission - but I run the red stuff, not the blue fuel-saver.

For the transfer case - I have the push-button-auto-4wd thing. That one gets OEM GM 'blue' fluid. I've read the clutches are picky and never really dug into anything about it. Alternative fluids wouldn't solve any of the known issues with the thing like with some of the transmission wear items, so, I never explored it.

 

[rockola1971]

Transaxle? In a K chassis? Whatchu talkin about willis?
I run The GM Blue Fluid in my Tcase (Auto 4wd), GM spec in everything else but not neccessarily GM brand.

"
I’ll be changing the fluids in the transmission, font/rear differential, transaxle/transfer case… and wondering which fluids the cool people are using?

I’m thinking of using Amsoil:

Front diff: Amsoil 80w-90 Severe Gear (2qts)

Rear diff: Amsoil Sever Gear 75w-110 (3qts)

Transaxle: Amsoil 75w-90 Manual Trans & Transaxle (3qts)

Transmission: Amsoil ATF Fuel Efficient - blue logo - (6qts)

Anyone else running something different?"