Transmission Fluid
Team Owner
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 96,443
Likes: 9
From: Fort Knox, KY
Cruise-In IV Veteran
Cruise-In VI Veteran
Cruise-In VII Veteran
Cruise-In VIII Veteran
Are you drag racing, auto-crossing or engaging in other activities that would stress the transmission and AFT fluid?
If not, the benefits of synthetic ATF might be hard to justify from a cost analysis perspective.
If not, the benefits of synthetic ATF might be hard to justify from a cost analysis perspective.
Team Owner
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 96,443
Likes: 9
From: Fort Knox, KY
Cruise-In IV Veteran
Cruise-In VI Veteran
Cruise-In VII Veteran
Cruise-In VIII Veteran
Melting Slicks
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 3,284
Likes: 51
From: Jacksonville, FL
St. Jude Donor '08 thru '26
GL rating....
.....for the transmission has to be matched to which ever fluid you intend to use. Go to zfdoc.com and read the article on the fluid testing that Bill had done. In the article it defines what GL rating ZF requires for our transmissions. I don't remember the exact GL rating and much else from the article but the most important fact I took with me was that GL ratings are specific. If the trans needs GL5 then that's it, no other GL rating can be substituted. I think our trans needs GL3, but go look for the info before you pick a fluid to use....it's way important.
FWIW, I have a 90 ZR-1 and I alternate between using the GM stuff and the BMW stuff.....just depends if I'm near the BMW dealer or if I'm at the chevy parts counter....but I change it every year or before 15K miles at the absolute outside. I feel it's cheap insurance, it costs too much to rebuild one of these....it ain't like an M22, those are easy compared to a ZF6spd.
Tom
Sorry to be so long on this but just to show how important the fluid is in our registry we had a rash of failures of Z owners using a synthetic fluid other than the BMW or GM stuff....90% of the trouble was traced back to incorrect GL ratings.
FWIW, I have a 90 ZR-1 and I alternate between using the GM stuff and the BMW stuff.....just depends if I'm near the BMW dealer or if I'm at the chevy parts counter....but I change it every year or before 15K miles at the absolute outside. I feel it's cheap insurance, it costs too much to rebuild one of these....it ain't like an M22, those are easy compared to a ZF6spd.
Tom
Sorry to be so long on this but just to show how important the fluid is in our registry we had a rash of failures of Z owners using a synthetic fluid other than the BMW or GM stuff....90% of the trouble was traced back to incorrect GL ratings.
