Which Oil/Fluid Company Do You Trust With Your Life?!

[BMW4LIFE]

Dex III is dino based & Dex VI is either synth or synth blend. If your tranny was new, I'd say go for the Dex VI if you really wanted to (even though it's still not needed). But it's not. In fact it has a good deal of miles on it. I most certainly wouldn't want to change over to full or blend synth in a tranny with more than 25k miles on it.

And if you'll notice in that GM info bulletin you referenced over at Bob is the oil guy you'll notice that GM is mentioning using a fluid flush machine to change Dex III trannies over to Dex VI and making sure that there's no Dex III left in the flush machine before you put the Dex VI in it. Gm built your tranny, and they're talking about fully flushing Dex III out of a tranny before Dex VI is put in.

Dex VI is pretty much a synthetic equivalent of Dex III.

Hit up Costco and pick up a case of standard Dex III. Will probably be Chevron brand. Do the drain/fill twice and then a week later do the drain/filter/fill and be done with it. Repeat in a couple of years or 25k miles.

This is coming from someone that's never satisfied with factory anything (I even have had a friend ask me why I always need to improve things when I was improving her son's toy so it'd work better...lol). I always want to have something custom built or custom modified so that it works better. But my experience with trannies tells me that if it's spec'd to run Dex III, then run Dex III. As much as I wanted to run Amsoil ATF in my brand new custom built GM tranny I didn't do it. Ran regular old Dex III.

Okay bubba you have me sold...I went to Costco today and picked up some Chevron ATF for $24 for 12 qrts ($2 a qrt) =)

The back of the bottle reads that it is compatible with Dex III but on the box it say "Chevron ATF MD-3"

What the heck does MD-3 mean? is that an okay ATF to use?

thanks for all yoru help and advice Bubba!

[Ferret]

Where's the "Whatever's on offer the day I wonder into the parts broker?" option?

My transmission runs on Hope, and the engine Contempt!

Edit: On a more serious note, where's the option for my Füchs Dexron 3 and motor oil?

[whiskychaser]

Edit: On a more serious note, where's the option for my Füchs Dexron 3 and motor oil?

They probably pronounce it like that over the phone or it may sound rude. But there is no umlaut.

A list of what you can put in where and who makes it courtesy of Mr ZF:
http://www01apps.zf.com/kst464/ZF_In...011_en0700.pdf

[BMW4LIFE]

Edit: On a more serious note, where's the option for my Füchs Dexron 3 and motor oil?

To be honest with you I didn't even think about that brand let alone other good brands like Red Line

But I have seen that brand Fuchs but I do not remember where exactly...can you clarify?

Is it better than the other brands sold on the market today?

[Rick L]

Is it just me? Percentage adds up to 215.32%?!?

I have only used Mobil 1 and Castol synthetic on all my cars and never had oil related issue...

[BMW4LIFE]

Is it just me? Percentage adds up to 215.32%?!?

I have only used Mobil 1 and Castol synthetic on all my cars and never had oil related issue...

I think its because Regal is tearing up the survey!

No I think it is because I allowed for multiple choices...

I'm sad I forgot to put Red Line up there though

Hahaha, Dex III is what your trans should be using, but check the plate (too late now) Dex IV is supposed to be fully synthetic but backwards compatible.

Differential should always take a full synthetic, 80W 90 non LSD 85W 140 for the LSD unit.

M1 motor oil says full synthetic but isn't anymore because Castrol wasn't a full synthetic like M1 but said so on the bottle. M1 took castrol to court and lost so M1 decided to make a semi synthetic and advertise like castrol, full synthetic.

I'm currently using M1 15w 50, seems fine so far. Should change it soon as the driveway to the shop isn't like driving through wet concrete.

[bubba966]

Okay bubba you have me sold...I went to Costco today and picked up some Chevron ATF for $24 for 12 qrts ($2 a qrt) =)

The back of the bottle reads that it is compatible with Dex III but on the box it say "Chevron ATF MD-3"

What the heck does MD-3 mean? is that an okay ATF to use?

Dexron is a GM product. By making their ATF and calling it "MD-3" (I'm sure the D-3 refers to Dexron III, the M is probably there just to avoid copyright or trademark lawsuits from GM) they don't have to fork over as much $ to GM. It's all Dex III spec. Probably the exact same stuff or slightly better. It's perfectly fine to use. My point has been to just use dino ATF in Dex III spec rather than using a synth Dex III or other synth ATF.

[BMW4LIFE]

Dexron is a GM product. By making their ATF and calling it "MD-3" (I'm sure the D-3 refers to Dexron III, the M is probably there just to avoid copyright or trademark lawsuits from GM) they don't have to fork over as much $ to GM. It's all Dex III spec. Probably the exact same stuff or slightly better. It's perfectly fine to use. My point has been to just use dino ATF in Dex III spec rather than using a synth Dex III or other synth ATF.

Yea I am taking your advice on that Bubba...

I looked it up and it seems as though the MD-3 stands for Mercon Dexron III

Will do the tranny drain in the next week as I have to get ready for Tahoe right now!

Thanks for all your help buddy! =)

[BMW4LIFE]

Hey bubba

So I drain the pan when the car was ran for 15 miles or so and noticed that it only drained ~1.5 qrts...I filled it up with around 1.5 (until it came out of the drain plug and then ran it for another 20 min or so on jacks making sure I went through all the gears so that clean fluid can be distributed...I drained it again and noticed I only got 1.5 qrts again?!?!?!?!

Shouldn't it b draining around 3 qrts from the pan?

did I do something wrong?

oh and yes the car is level on 4 jack stands.

[bubba966]

Don't recall the exact amount I was getting out of the '95 525 I was doing it on. Didn't really care either. I was only worried about draining & refilling it. I did it enough to go through at least 6 quarts.

You try filling it with the engine running? Autos need to have the fluid levels checked when the fluid is up to temp and when the engine is running. As these autos don't have dipsticks you should be "checking" it by filling it with the engine running.

If you're only getting about 1 1/2 quarts a pop I'd give it 2 more drain/fills.