Volvo Manual Trans. Fluid

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I'm new here and I have a question. I have a 94 Volvo 850 N/A 5 spd and I am trying to figure out what fluid I need to use. From reading on the Volvo forums, there seems to be lots of conflicting info on this topic. Some people say the factory Volvo stuff is synthetic 5-30 and that Mobil 1 5-30 will work fine. Others say not to use Mobil 1 and to use Redline MTL. Does anyone know what exactly the factory stuff is? Would I be fine using either of the two?

I am just trying to avoid paying $20 per liter for the factory stuff if there is something else that is cheaper and does the same thing.

Thanks for the help!
 
Odd, the amsoil site specifies the Volvo fluid...

Quote:

Volvo synthetic gearbox Oil part no. 1161423-7.
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A mix of Amsoil MTF and MTG works better than either MTF or MTG, then my question is why Amsoil doesn't have a combined fluid of these two in a bottle ?
 
75w85 seems to be neglected by Amsoil, Redline, Royalpurple, BG......
Usually you only need to dilute the 75w90's(MTG, MT90) with 25% of their thinner(MTF, MTL) to get the ~85wt.

A VOA on the Volvo fluid would be interesting. It will help answer the question on what to use for a substitute.
 
If the Volvo fluid was so great, people would be using it in all sorts of transmissions as an upgrade.
But they are not, by any means.
So, upgrade to Amsoil or Redline.
Mixing viscosities is common and OK.
 
Volvo Trucks use Castrol Syntrans 75W-85 (11.9cSt @ 100*, it carries a Volvo pt. #) and we tend to use Syntrans here as the 'go to' fluid for anything that has synchro problems with other fluids. (it's widely available and cost competitive)
 
Thanks for the help. I decided to go with Redline because the company I was ordering parts from has it, so I just got some. I will let you know within a week how it feels. This car has almost 300,000 miles, so who knows what has been used in it all this time. I really doubt it has been Volvo fluid, but who knows.
 
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