Transmission Fluid

[bjm]

Well thought I would ring a couple of well known auto transmission shops in Ballina yesterday re getting a fluid change on the ZF 8speed Had a ZF pan so
only labour and fluid needed.Asked price and product used.One shop stated
$400.00 and uses either Valvoline Maxlife,or Penrite.The other shop $500.00
and either Lubeguard or Lifeguard 8 ,will not have Penrite atf in the shop but uses all of Penrites other products,says enough auto shops including himself have had problems with the Penrite! Rang Richard at JeepsRUs in Coffs .will only use Lifeguard 8:and over twice the price but pretty sure does a double flush.
Geez might have to go to yoga and get my hands dirty!
What prices have others paid?

[bjm]

Thought I would mention this again.!If you think major retail oil retailers get
oil specs,etc right you are wrong! Oil companies like Penrite ,Castrol ,etc in most cases try and get oil specs from vehicle manufacturers .According to a guy I knew at Penrite some would give them the oil and fluid specs many wouldnt including FCA ! They would then go to one of acouple of companies worldwide whose main business was to analyse products re specs etc.and advise companies like Penrite.
I have on three occasions told Penrite their product catalogues were wrong!
Jeep WH transfer cases did not use atf, WK diesels after 2016 do not use 5w40!plus incorrect coolant in the early WKs ie hoat,not oat!
Also advised Nulon and Castrol re correct oil! In all cases these companies took ages to change catalogues or some still havnt! Note well disclaimers on these oil
companies catalogues,says it all really!

[drover]

I don't rely on oil company catalogues or even the oil brand recommended by vehicle manufactuers, my go to is the actual oil spec, ie: 5W40 C3, LifeGard 8, that sort of thing, and with the ZF box well ZF themselves give you the spec, Lifegard 6/8 so thats what I go by, to date I have used Penrite and Nulon they state they are compat with Lifegard 6-8 and they have worked very well, my only shop service for the box last year cost $600, Nulon oil and a new pan, think they slugged around $250 for the pan, Gilroys of Toowoomba use the Nulon in all their services and I haven't heard of Beamers, Landies or Grands falling apart, though they did say the biggest killer is the 100K km intervals and not just with ZF boxes ........ If anyone says they gave the 8 speed a good flush then be suss as the box is not to be flushed, it won't like it it seems....

[Jeeper6]

As we know it is really only the oil sitting in the torque converter that doesn't drop out when the pan is dropped...so, a flush is supposed to freshen that oil as well rather than leave it to mix old with the new.

All tranny shops will tell you they "flushed" the transmission when they change the oil...I really don't know what that entails.

I know an expert so I will him and get the lowdown...

[bjm]

It is pretty well known that Lifeguard 8 is Shell ML12108 atf.Not available in Australia.

[Jeeper6]

OK...this is from the transmission guru...35 years rebuilding diffs and gearboxes. Has his own tranny shop and did the service on mine while in Perth.
He flushes all auto transmissions when he services them...if carried out correctly is never a problem.
Obviously to just drop the pan and replace the oil in the pan is never going to be a proper job...which is often the way it is done.

"to flush....remove one of the cooler lines , then start the vehicle while pumping oil into the transmission and flush through about 11 litres , replace the line and top up the oil.

The oil to use is ZF Lifeguard 8 which can be purchased from Motospec by the litre or 20 litre....it’s relatively expensive at $595.00 + gst...($32.75 a litre) He noted too that many people get on forums and recommend Penrite or some equivalent replacement................not the same !"

There you go...you are on the right track as usual drover...

[bjm]

Originally Posted by Jeeper6

OK...this is from the transmission guru...35 years rebuilding diffs and gearboxes. Has his own tranny shop and did the service on mine while in Perth.
He flushes all auto transmissions when he services them...if carried out correctly is never a problem.
Obviously to just drop the pan and replace the oil in the pan is never going to be a proper job...which is often the way it is done.

"to flush....remove one of the cooler lines , then start the vehicle while pumping oil into the transmission and flush through about 11 litres , replace the line and top up the oil.

The oil to use is ZF Lifeguard 8 which can be purchased from Motospec by the litre or 20 litre....it’s relatively expensive at $595.00 + gst...($32.75 a litre) He noted too that many people get on forums and recommend Penrite or some equivalent replacement................not the same !"

There you go...you are on the right track as usual drover...

That fits in with the one auto trans shop in Ballinas advice !They will only use Lifeguard 8 in the 8 speed even though using Penrite products elsewhere.Although ZF themselves state do not flush these boxes! Penrite also state do not mix Lifeguard and their product!Plus Do NOT mix .
Just removing all fluid on a way mentioned above should be ok.