Um, yes, sometimes you do know more than they do.
Remember, these are the same "engineers" that put 10W30 motor oil in the
Getrag Transmissions on the '90 Cummins Turbo Diesel Ram's and watched them
vaporize every 40,000 miles to the point that there are NO MORE PARTS for this
transmission in this country. However, the transmission runs perfectly on
Synthetic Gear Oil with an oil change every 100K miles and will last over 500K
miles even under heavy loads.
Sometimes, it's better to exceed OEM recommendations. I feel that you
should put Synthetic were ever you can. Dino oils just can't handle torture
conditions that come from either work or that some other problem may create.
For example: You're tooling along down the road and your transmission
encounters a problem with a bearing generating a bit too much friction from
being over worked. This can heat your oil to 400+ degrees. Dino oil starts
to think it's a better idea to become varnish at that point, a synthetic says,
"Man it's hot" but keeps doing it's job. You stop and notice some smoke
coming from your tranny or oil dripping on the ground, taking it into the shop
your mechanic tells you all he needs to replace is a bearing, but with dino
oil, you could be buying a whole new transmission. Moral of the story: you
can save money with Dino oil up front, but you could end up with bigger bills
later. It's a gamble, you could lose, you could win. I just prefer to play
it safe... I've never heard of someones engine/transmission/differential
dying from using synthetic's that are designed for it.
Almost all reported problems with Synthetic's come from leaking after first
use. This is because synthetic's "migrate" when at rest. The slightest nook
or cranny and they find it to leak out. Dino oil tends to be like water and
stay connected to itself. Small crevices will not always get capillary action
out of dino oil, but almost always will out of synthetic's. Again, this is
why they lubricate so well though, they find every little area to be in, even
at rest, so you have to have good seals.
Shaun H.
---original message---
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1999 15:15:52 -0700
From: "Pedro J. Diaz" <pjdmd@mho.net>
Subject: DML: Synthetics in NV3500
Someone mentioned that they had noticed that people started having
problems with their tranny once they started using synthetic.
I perused the DML archives, and didn't find much on this.
I asked the tranny guru at a local Dodge dealership, and he arrogantly
reprimanded me for even thinking of using synthetics, " the Chrysler
engineers designed it to run with a certain type of fluid, do you think
you know more than they do?" Thinking this man is nothing but an
engorged phallus, I don't quite believe him.
So, I'll ask the experts...
What do people use out there, and what's the conventional wisdom on it?
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