Is Amsoil SVG worth it

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Mar 21, 2004
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Near the beach in Delaware
So while I believe Amsoil SVG gear oils are top notch I am beginning to wonder if they are worth the extra cost.

Had the rear diff gear oil changed in my F250 recently. The Indy shop guy said it was dark and needed to be changed. Front diff was changed also but he said it was not dark like the rear diff. I am not in 4WD mode very often.

The rear diff gear oil (Amsoil SVG) had 53K miles on it. Very minor amount of towing and only 50 miles with my boat on a trailer (9000 lbs) and seldom anything in the pickup bed. So I would not consider it severe use.

I am thinking Valvoline full synthetic would do as good a job for less cost than Amsoil SVG.

I would have expected the Amsoil SVG to go 100K miles before it looked dark.
 
Amsoil SVG (75W90) is $17.29
Valvoline 75W90 at Walmart is $15.12 (at least at my Walmart)

That is a rather insignificant price difference for something that is changed so infrequently (4-5 years).

Of interest though, that 540Rat guy had a specific comparison on his page with these two gear lubes and he failed the Amsoil and approved of the Valvoline. Whether that means anything in the real world or not I do not know. It's just one more speck of data.
 
Donald,

The color of your gear lube, just like the color of your engine oil, is not indicative of the level of protection still present in that fluid.

I’m assuming no analysis was performed on that gear lube you drained?

And I’m willing to bet if you used the Valvoline gear lube there’s a strong likelihood it, too, would be just as dark at 53k miles.
 
I too think oil color from an engine is subjective - but 30K-50K when I change Delvac 1 gear lube? it’s not dark at all …
(what I have used for many years) …
 
Donald,

The color of your gear lube, just like the color of your engine oil, is not indicative of the level of protection still present in that fluid.

I’m assuming no analysis was performed on that gear lube you drained?

And I’m willing to bet if you used the Valvoline gear lube there’s a strong likelihood it, too, would be just as dark at 53k miles.
Given that the diff cover has to be removed to drain the gear oil it would be hard to get a clean sample.

While I know color of engine oil is not indictive of the condition of the engine oil, there is a lot less happening in a differential other than wear compared to an engine doing combustion.

I would have to think it about this some more but my initial thinking is the color of differential gear oil might be a pretty good indicator of the condition of the gear oil.
 
Color variances can be traced largely to the additives used in the fluid. The color change occurs when the fluid is exposed to heat while in service.

It's really not a reliable method to validate a fluid based on color.
 
When we had the 2002 F250 with posi, the oil would drain out really dark at 30,000 mile intervals using Redline or M1 75W140 I started adding extra posi additive and the oil didn't get hardly as dark. I would put money on the oil looking better next time you drain the oil.. I own a 2015 F150 with an elocker and a 2018 F350 with an Elocker and the oil, stays cleaner looking.
 
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Is it unrealistic for me to think it should have gone 100K before it looked like it needed to be changed?
When we had the 2002 F250 with posi, the oil would drain out really dark at 30,000 mile intervals using Redline or M1 75W140 I started adding extra posi additive and the oil didn't get hardly as dark. I would put money on the oil looking better next time you drain the oil.. I own a 2015 F150 with an elocker and a 2018 F350 with an Elocker and the oil, stays cleaner looking.
I do not believe my rear differential has a POSI. I think when I enter 4WD the differential locks up.
 
Is it unrealistic for me to think it should have gone 100K before it looked like it needed to be changed?
I do not believe my rear differential has a POSI. I think when I enter 4WD the differential locks up.
That is really hard on the differential pinon gears thrust bearings. Not supposed to use 4X4 on hard surfaces.
 
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