Manual trans oil

[rdavis]

Did a search & couldn't find anything. What is the best atf to use in our manual cars. I'm thinking Redline d4. Good choice? Thanks in advance!

[Jeff_SS]

Yes, Redline D4 is the way to go.

[TheBrightSide]

I rant a lot about all the potential transmission fluids and gear oils you can actually appropriately run in a Tremec TR-6060, but any standard viscosity spec ATF will work. If it’s a generic “multi vehicle” ATF spec, it’s most likely just some form of Dexron III/Mercon ATF. I highly suggest going full synthetic if possible, however. ATF+4 is a standard viscosity spec ATF that comes naturally fully synthetic by it’s manufacturing process; highly recommended if looking for a budget friendly alternative.

Other high performance or high mileage duty ATF’s for TES 295, 398, and 668 are typically the top-of-the-line SV (standard viscosity) spec ATF’s that are made for heavy duty automatic transmissions like Allison, ZF, etc. for semi-trucks, etc. They’re all fully synthetic and have a superb additive package (ex: Amsoil Torque Drive, Valvoline Syngard ES, Mobil Delvac 1). I believe Castrol makes their version called Transynd 668; however, it was more leaning towards LV (low viscosity) spec ATF and was more or less a Dexron LV/Mercon LV ATF (too thin for hard driving conditions).

Aside from that, you can maybe even seek some full synthetic Mercon V ATF, although they’re generally even less common than finding full synth Dex III ATF in my experience. If you in a US state with O’Reilly, they carry their own line of full synthetic Mercon V ATF, although I believe it only comes in individual single quarts only. For what it’s worth, I got a gallon (~3.78 qt/L technically) of O’Reilly ATF+4 ATF for around $36 out the door. You definitely can’t beat that (minus purchasing an extra quart of ATF to top off).

Nothing wrong with conventional ATF; I just prefer full synthetic for their additive packages (as claimed; some tested), as it seems to hold up a lot longer and better than conventional ATF choices. If you’re a person like me who changes ATF like once a year or every other year, you can still most certainly tell the difference as cheaper, conventional begins to shear and break down in it’s weight, viscosity, etc.

Obviously if I lived in a super hot climate area, I’d probably run a choice of some kind of GL-4 75w-80 (Synchromesh MTF, Redline MTL) or 75w-85 (ex: Tremec HP MTF, Redline MT-85) gear oil full time. Hell, I even ran Honda OEM MTF at one point, which is somewhat of a GL-4 70w-75 supposedly. It wasn’t that bad, and I’ve also ranted about DCTF’s (dual clutch ATF) at some point, since those are also naturally fully synthetic by production, and are typically around the same weight and viscosity as standard viscosity ATF’s I mentioned above.

If you wanna do your own research, you can check out Bobistheoilguy’s forum, and there’s plenty of topics and threads on there about what you can and/or should run in your transmission (specific or not). Also, it looks like you have a 2012 SS (from your side bio), which should mean that you have the revised factory hybrid synchronizers. I’m sure you probably won’t have to worry about my rant unless you’re a person who bangs gears all the time or tracks their car super often.

[0stones0]

Redline is what I went with. No issues.