synthetic ATF in Differential good or bad

[tadaima]

Just put in MOBIL1 synth in my Camry auto diff. Noticed that the car MAY have a noisier sound, not quite sure..maybe its just me thinking that the fluid is thinner that's causing it.

Is this normal, is it bad? Shifting wize, I noticed that when I let go of the gas and step on it kinda firm the car jolts a little, but could be the same for all cars...I guess I'm just being picky..there is a thing called momentum.

Car has 30K on it, i changed the tranny fluid at 15K already but not the diff.

 

[Bror Jace]

tadaima, the differential calls for ATF? Yikes! That doesn't seem to be the fluid I'd want for a diff unless it shares fluid with the rest of the auotmatic transaxle.

--- Bror Jace

 

[Alan]

My Sienna has a seperate drain plug for the differential but shares the filler tube.This is a pretty big and heavy van so it seems to put a pretty heavy load on the differntial but I guess Toyota's engineers felt ATF was up to the task.I haven't heard of a Sienna differentail failure yet.

 

[tadaima]

Yea most general toyota cars use ATF as a diff fluid, hondas do take a similiar weight product in their tranny as well. For those with rear Diff I believe they take higher weights.

 

[pinoy99]

FWIW, 2003+ Acura separated the sump for diff and auto transmission; diff gets 90 weight gear oil while the other sump gets the Honda ATF. This is for the 3.5l V6 MDX;I'm assuming the Pilot has the same, possibly the Saturn Vue as well.

 

[Jimbo]

FWD cars with transverse mounted engines, which is typical, do not have hypoid gearsets because the motion is not transferred 90 degrees. These differentials would not need GL-5 gear oil because there is no extreme pressure on the gear teeth.

The few that do have longitudinal mounted engines, like Subaru, have hypoid final drive gears and need GL-5 in the diff.

 

[friendly_jacek]

I feel offended!
Subaru is not FWD, at least these days...

 

[Bror Jace]

Jimbo, that was good to know. Thanks for posting!

"Toyota cars use ATF as a diff fluid, Hondas do take a similiar weight product in their tranny as well."

Hondas with automatics? Hondas with 5 speeds used to ask for 10W30 ... now they ask for Honda MTF but I've always used Red Line MTL in mine.

The Honda diff fluid for the CRV's rear punkin' is some proprietary fluid ... I think Honda calls it "Double Pump" fluid. I asked Dave Granquist at Red Line about it and which of their oils is comparable and at the time (2 years ago) Honda hadn't released the specs so Dave couldn't recommend a Red Line lube.

--- Bror Jace

 

[tadaima]

Yea you are correct Honda ATF for the auto, currently in my del sol 5 speed I use MT90 instead of MTL, a little stickier in the cold winters, but I feel that the thicker oil would give better protection in the long run.