Ladies and gentlemen, I have found a new way of life: Castrol TAF-X

 

Read around the board, and you will find many opinions, on many different gear oils - including mine! - and this, oil of oils, has never been mentioned. What a shame!

 

It's a fully synth, GL4/5 75W-90, designed for gearboxes that also comprise a diff, just like our Subes! Whilst it's not quite new-gearbox-in-a-bottle, the baulky shift action into third that has dogged Subes for decades has improved vastly after doing 600 miles with this oil. I can just glide the stick forward from 4th and it will slide into 3rd, no crunch, no baulk, just pure sensory delight!

 

Apparently, it's hard to come by in the states, but if you can get a hold of some, go for it!

Setright, from which side of the argument were you previously? Dino or synth?

Synth. Have been most of the time.

 

 

Funny thing was that I intended to go with a semi-synth from Castrol, but a friend of mine bought the "wrong" stuff for me. Before returning the TAF-X I decided to read around the 'net, including Castrol's own line.

Seems the Ford Sierra Cosworth guys like this oil too - and their 4wd is similar to ours...

I have been meaning to change my box oil as it is getting louder as the miles increase. Sometimes a better or thicker oil will quiet them for a while, but inevitably it will probably mean a new gearbox for me. I have over 100,000 now and expect to make at least 150,000 whine and all.

Sube boxes are just noisy, and of course the noise will get louder with age. I say run it until it MUST be repaired. The tell-tale sign is lots of metal shavings in the gear oil...like a mound of it on top the drain plug magnet. ANy less than 120k miles means a production defect. (Or too much racing!)

TAF-X isnt thick by the way, but there is plenty of film-strength, which is likely to quieten things down a bit.