Recent content by Ed

If You are paying money to have your cooling system serviced every 2 years you'll never know exactly what coolant formulation is in your vehicle. People who professionally service different makes usually buy their fluid in bulk from a distributor and generally is a brand name you never heard of...

Some automatics circulate the oil through more of the transmission in Neutral than Park. Idling in drive should not be a problem as long as the idle speed is low. Yeah There's a lot of churning going on in the converter but with no real horsepower load the fluid temp should remain well within...

Actually all brake fluid is synthetic. There are a few exotic brands that are used by mostly european car buffs but they can be a pain to find when you want them and are unecessarily expensive. I would use Castrol LMA or Valvoline Synpower. These are both premium DOT 4 fluids and are available...

I believe the oil companies produce limited quantities of older formulations because there is still a demand for it. Some people who restore or use older cars want to retain the authenticity of the original equipment. I really doubt if a Concourse d'Elegance inspector would judge the score of a...

20 questions like that and you get 30 answers. You really can't go too wrong following the Toyota manual. All modern oils will meet Toyotas specs but a little superstition regarding brands doesn't hurt. Toyota is about the most bulletproof vehicle being made, especially the trucks. There is more...

The cleanest way to do this is probably to get the tranny fixed by someone who really knows his stuff and bite the bullet and just pay for it. Then take the dealer,and/or, Subaru to Small Claims court. No lawyers and the $5000 Max payment should more than cover the cost of repairs. It Might help...

**** this is a good thread. Oils well that ends well!

Seek and ye shall find. Briggs recommends straight 30 weight. Thy sell their own brand ,of course. I would guess that Briggs gets a lot of questions about the use of synthetic oil in their products(as it should be) so GUESS WHAT? They came out with their brand of synthetic. I have no idea...

My79 Toyota specs GL4 for the tranny. I've been using GL5 for the last 20 or so years with absolutely no problems. I think modern GL5 is backward compatible with just about any gear oil.

Unless the manual is very very specific about using ATF in the power steering I wouldn't use any product that doesn't say "Power Steering" on the container, and furthermore specify Approval by the car manuf. The Manual for my 98 Grand Cherokee is very specific: NEVER use ATF in the PS pump. So...

I find it very interesting that Yellow Jug Prestone is no longer the conventional "green stuff" to which we have been familiar.It's still green but............. It says on the jug that it is compatible with ANY antifreeze that exists (or something to that effect) The ingredients listed on the...

If it's running smooth and quiet now, it's safe to assume that no damage was done. If a piece of anything was rattling around in the combustion chamber the engine would run like crap. I've heard of stuff getting hung up in the exhaust valve on it's way out but once thats blown out of the way...

If your real careful capturing the drained fluid, it's possible that you would need less than a quart to top it off after the repair is complete. That said, A repair shop charges big bucks for time spent and the cost of the time it takes to be real careful about recovering the coolant could...

Thats a question thats been asked frequently ever since synthetics made their appearance on the automotive scene. Justification for using synthetics is valid on either end of the the temperature extremes. At all "normal" environments the only real advantage is one of "insurance". What if your...

If it's really true that used oil promotes a slower wear rate, I have about 20 quarts of used mobil-1 that I would be happy to sell anyone for 20 bux a quart. Hey your engine will last longer if you use it RIGHT?