legacycentral bbs

Does gear oil get dirty like engine oil?

I just checked my AWD MT tranny oil and it is at the L mark, but the oil is super clean and there are no leaks.

I don't know what oil is in it..
I don't have problems with grinding or getting it into gear too much.
So I don't think I would need synchro mesh, I don't put too much stress on my tranny, only by downshifting.
All I basically found at the local parts places was STAOIL, sp.?
Then some Valvoline and Pennzoil synchromesh.
Any suggestions?
I read all the oil topics, believe me!! I'm more confused now!!

Since it's low I wanna change it along with the differential oil...

It does get dirty. The service life is typically much longer, because it's used for gear lubrication. It's not a bad idea to change it out though as the viscosity modifiers will wear over time.

Pretty much any GL 5 rated 75w90 gear oil or even 80w90 gear oil should work.

I'd replace it with Redline Lightweight Shockproof. I use it in my daily driven Forester and it cured all shifting issues I had (slight grinding, unwilling to go into gear, the usual 135k by owners who didn't know how to drive stick).

I go no more than 20k between gear oil changes, but I'm anal about that stuff. When the new transmission goes into the Legacy, gear oil will be changed every 10 to 15k, but it will be subject to very severe conditions (aka flat-shifting and almost consistant launching)

Matt - To answer your "to thick for winter" question, I haven't found it to be inconvenient yet, and it's been in the 20's pretty consistantly.

For the sake of learning, I found this thread to be most helpful, and quite interesting.
http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic. ... ght=fluids

That was a blast from the past, lol.

I didn't really like the 75W90NS.

I'm glad I won't be using synchro's much longer.

Tristan, when did you swap an Ej20G?