Can you use motor oil for transmission fluid? When I put my new clutch in the mechanic said motor oil was okay but I bought some Honda MT fluid becuase I don't think hes right. I'm going to put the Honda MT Fluid in there but for the couple days the motor oil was in there, is it okay? I know motor oil can be used for temp. use but he said it was okay to use it permanently.
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tannie - "we exist through the being of others" - rip jape
It depends on which Gen you have I guess. I have 3rd gen so motor oil is specified. The thing with oil in the manual transmission is that its exposed to high shearing forces compared with the engine, so you need an oil that will hold it viscosity in a high shear / high pressure environment. But I continue to use motor oil (Shell Helix Ultra fully synth 5w40) because it makes the shifts easier and because its fully synthetic it will hold its viscosity.
Bottom line is that in the short term you're probably not doing any damage, but motor oil will degrade faster in the gearbox than MTF. Don't forget that this oil is used by the differential as well so there is a lot of shearing forces here.
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I you no longer go for a gap that exist, you're no longer a racing driver" Ayrton Senna.
helms manual for my 94 said to use Motor Oil 10-30
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-Mike-
88 RX-7 GXL SOLD - 88 RX-7 Turbo II
90 240sx SE SOLD - 89 RX-7 GXL
94 SiVTEC -SOLD! - 92 Toyota Pick-Up (Unintentional Drift ride)
RIP Jonathan "Jape" King
It states in the Helms manual that motor should not be used since it doesn't have certain additives that transmissions fluid has. I don't see a reason why you would use motor oil vs MTF since MTF is pretty much the same price.
in my 3rd gen manual it says for me to use 10-w30, and when I had my 2nd lude I tried using heavy synthetic gear oil, needless to say after a week of using it my shifts were met with a nice crunch, then I went back to good ol natural hydro-carbon 10w-30 and the tranny was fine after that, 3rd gens are different than 4th and 5th gens, if your manuals say to use honda MTF then use MTF no sense in spending thousands of dollars on car upgrades and not using the right fluids
I don't go out to use synthetic oil in my 'box, I use it because its the same oil I use in my engine and they come in 5 litre bottles, so I use the leftover oil for the 'box. Which means that I change the 'box oil every 2 oil changes of the engine. It always shifts so nice with new oil (every 10,000kms)
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I you no longer go for a gap that exist, you're no longer a racing driver" Ayrton Senna.
Just FYI. I've had Redline MTL in the tranny for several years already and shifts have never been better. Many of you have tried Redline oil with no good results complaining about crunching synchros and bad shifts. Not here.
really only fairly recently (late 90's) did honda actually specify using MTF in their cars. Everything before that said motor oil. For the ones that specify motor oil, either is fine. Like someone else said, they're both pretty much the same price, so go ahead and use it.
I use honda MTF. Good stuff, and my car has 200k on it. I don't know why you guys ***** about it.
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