Just changed the gear oils in my RX-8. The car has 34,500 miles on it. The OEM gear oils were replaced at approx. 5000 miles. The replacement gear oils are Amsoil products (then and now).
From a simple and perhaps naive observation, the Amsoil performed considerably better than the original stuff simply because there was FAR less metal shed.
The magnets had a thin metal paste on them (maybe 0.05 inches thick). Both oils had visible debris (extremely fine particles) suspended in them but would still easily pass light through them.
The original stuff was black as night when I dumped it at 5k (had a seriously awful, almost nauseating smell as well).
Having little experience with this stuff, is it likely this difference is due to better performing gear oils or simply that during break in the gears were shedding what appeared to be many times the metal per mile than during the subsequent OCI?
From a simple and perhaps naive observation, the Amsoil performed considerably better than the original stuff simply because there was FAR less metal shed.
The magnets had a thin metal paste on them (maybe 0.05 inches thick). Both oils had visible debris (extremely fine particles) suspended in them but would still easily pass light through them.
The original stuff was black as night when I dumped it at 5k (had a seriously awful, almost nauseating smell as well).
Having little experience with this stuff, is it likely this difference is due to better performing gear oils or simply that during break in the gears were shedding what appeared to be many times the metal per mile than during the subsequent OCI?
