Does a Syn ATF perform any better than a dino in a mild winter

[Alan]

I live in MD.The lowest it gets in the winter is around 0 degrees,not too bad by some standards.

In my cars no problems with an automatic transmission shifting with good dino ATF when it's this cold out.

How cold does it have to be for a syn to be more valuable in this application?

 

[olympic]

It gets down to -40 up here and 99% of the cars still have dino ATF in them. If you let the car warm up for a few minutes then it's not a problem. The ATF is warmed by the heat exchanger in the radiator. Of course any car could still benefit from synthetic ATF because it would begin pumping and lubricating faster in cold weather.

 

[MolaKule]

Last winter it dropped to -20 F and the vehicles with synth could pull away from a cold start where our dino-drenched vehicles had to warm up for at least 30 seconds before they would engage or move. All had new fluid in them.

One of our vehicles had Schaeffer's #204S (Dexron III(G)/Mercon version)and showed the same characteristics as the Synthetic fluid.

 

[nascarnation]

Petro-Canada dino Dex (GM factory fill in N. America) has essentially the same viscosity at -40 as the syns. Many of the other dinos that meet the Dex spec are thicker at -40. Of course being formulated in Canada has something to do with this. Where the syns excel is at high temps where they show much better oxidation resistance.

 

[T-Keith]

I don't notice anything in my autos, but the manual shifts hard below 0, even with syncromesh MTF.

-T

 

[Alan]

I used to own a 95 Contour with the 2.5L motor and a manual transmission.It shifted horroribly until it warmed up.I swapped in some Mobil 1 ATF and it made a big difference.

However dino ATF has worked excellent in my auto's.

 

[Mike_dup1]

The very first time I ever used synthetic ATF was back around 1980 in my 1979 C20 Chevy Custom Van. During the fist winter I had it, I would notice it was slow to move on really cold morning (0° or below) so I had the local trans shop install it for me. They had to drill a hole and tap the torque converter to get it all flushed out. No matter how cold it would get, put it in any gear and there was NO hesitation, it would move like it was 50° out. With the OEM fluid, it would sometimes take up to 5 seconds to feel the trans engage on very cold am's.

 

[Razl]

quote:

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Of course any car could still benefit from synthetic ATF because it would begin pumping and lubricating faster in cold weather.

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True, but not an option for my Saab 9-5. It uses Dex III, but specifically points out NOT to use synthetic ATF because it may cause increased wear. I don't know how to explain it other than the fluid being to slippery??

Anyways, I use full synthetic for the motor oil and dino for the transmission. I guess I'll heed Saab's advice since it gets pretty cold in Sweden too. Saab transmissions typically have no problem pushing past 300K miles, and with no servicable filter to boot.

I have a Honda too, but any non-Honda ATF works poorly. I guess Mobil will get their money from me with their motor oils only

 

[nascarnation]

what transmission does your Saab use
is it an Aisin? or ??

 

[Razl]

quote:

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what transmission does your Saab use
s it an Aisin? or ??

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I believe it is Aisin-Warner. I checked on the Saabnet forum. I guess synthetic causes uneven wear; though quite a few people have been using full sythetic for years.