Menu
What's new
By:
Advanced search...

Gearbox Oil Specs

R

Rob Cool

Member
Messages
42
Reaction score
12
Location
Newbury
Car
mk8 Accord 2.2 Dtec
Hi all,

I'm doing a service on my accord tomorrow and would like to change the gearbox oil too.

I'm right in thinking that Hondas MTF3 is 75W-80? I test & develop race gearboxes and hypercar gearboxes so have access to a range of "suitable" automotive oils
What would be the best out of the following? These are all automotive spec oils, not motorsport which doesn't have synchro additives in:

Shell TF 1055 (this is special Ferrari Specific oil)
Shell Spirax S5 ATE 75W-90 (most of our hypercar projects use this)
Shell Spirax S6 GXME 75W-80
Toyota Differential Gear Oil LX 75W-85 (this is used in the gearbox too)
Motul Gear LS 300 75W-90

there's a couple of others but these are the main ones.

The cars on 172K, not sure if the oils ever been changed so any of those i would ***ume would be better.
The Shell Spirax S5 is probably the "best" out of them all as its the highest performance based oil, the Toyota oil is similar viscosity to Hondas MTF3.

I'm not too fussed what goes in there tbh but what are your thoughts? There must be other options other than Hondas own blend

Cheers
Rob
 
The thing that concerns me with the MTF3 oil, obviously i know my gearbox was designed to use this oil, is that i can't find really any information on it, the MSDS i can find are very vague and lack information compared to others i have seen.
In addition to this the oil it self seems to be "old" in the sense that it's still mineral, hasn't been updated until at least 15-20 years?
Must be better on the market nowadays!
 
I would say the closest to the spec would be Motul Gear 300 75w-80, Not sure of the the limited slip version LS which you have.

The Honda spec is old MTF-7289 so there are probably better alternatives out there but as you have found out it is not easy to work out.
 
I used MTF-3 when I did mine. You'll need new washers too.
 
Yes it is mineral, I stumbled on a spec sheet once, despite which it has a cult-like status and following on the forums.
I use Comma MVMTF Plus 75W 80 Fully Synthetic.
 
So in the end I went with the shell spirax 75w-90, which I know it thicker but we had more of it so that's what it came down to
The motul one would've been my first choice but as you mentioned @Bounder I'm not sure what effects having the LS additives would've had. I would ***ume next to none but also the shell we've been using for years on a range of products so I know it works well.

Initial thoughts:
There is not too much difference between what was in there (it was red whatever it was that came out) and the shell.
There is now a bit more of a direct/mechanical feel when changing gear "normally", something that personal I prefer, 2nd - 3rd is most noticeable. Downshifts feel largely the same, as does hard acceleration shifts.

Before it would almost float into gear and I wouldn't really feel any feedback, whereas now you can feel the engagement of the synchros more which is what I like :)

I changed the drain and level drain washers, the full plug stayed as I didn't have that size lol.

Cheers all
Rob
 
If it was red it might have been Red Line MTL. Expensive stuff from the USA but good. Looks like it's been changed before which is the main thing.
 
Rob Cool said:
So in the end I went with the shell spirax 75w-90, which I know it thicker but we had more of it so that's what it came down to
The motul one would've been my first choice but as you mentioned @Bounder I'm not sure what effects having the LS additives would've had. I would ***ume next to none but also the shell we've been using for years on a range of products so I know it works well.

Initial thoughts:
There is not too much difference between what was in there (it was red whatever it was that came out) and the shell.
There is now a bit more of a direct/mechanical feel when changing gear "normally", something that personal I prefer, 2nd - 3rd is most noticeable. Downshifts feel largely the same, as does hard acceleration shifts.

Before it would almost float into gear and I wouldn't really feel any feedback, whereas now you can feel the engagement of the synchros more which is what I like :)

I changed the drain and level drain washers, the full plug stayed as I didn't have that size lol.

Cheers all
Rob
Click to expand...
It feels like that because you’ve reduced the level of lubrication the box requires to give you that smooth feeling. It isn’t just the viscosity of the oil that’s key, Honda develop their own fluids and the additives that go in there are what make their MTF unique. It’s your car and if you’re happy that’s fine, but what you’re actually describing is a degradation in performance, not improvement.
 
Put your car details on the Opie Oils website & see what they recommend for it.
 
Hi all, sorry the reply is late.

Still quite happy with it, after driving a bit more I've found once everything's warmed up there's barely any difference to how it was in normal driving.
1-2 & 2-3 casual/slow shifts feel quite mechanical as previously mentioned, it reminds me a bit of my old 2nd gen BA2 Prelude which is cool.

From my experience with testing manual and AMT high performance gearboxes, there's very minimal differences in wear of components (mainly synchros) when using different various specs of oil, obviously I'm talking about automotive oils, motorsport spec oils would destroy a std box with synchros in no time.
You're correct the additives make a difference with the engagement process, but I'm not sure if having a more mechanical feel decreases the performance. The lubrication is mainly down to the viscosity of the oil, the shell spirax when at operating temperature is one of the best out of all the oil's we've tested, even motorsport spec ones. The additives in automotive oils are mainly for the synchros and effects the engagement and feel, it would be right to ***ume that the majority of Honda owners don't care much for mechanical feel and just want the easiest experience, hence the Honda oil has been blended in a way for nice smooth shifts?

We're currently developing the manual 6 speed gearbox for the GMA T50, they went with the shell Spirax because they reckoned it feels nicer than other stuff they've tried (it's seems quite a commonly used oil for this application, our other automotive customers use it). I must admit there's so much focus on the gearchange and getting "the perfect manual gearchange" I'm not sure how much impact the oil has with everything else that's being tried. We've got a huge frame next to the test rig with a seat and the centre console from the car, they've been trying different gearlink cables which go through these channels that mimic the exact routing in the car, different strength gearchange springs (development ones are adjustable to speed testing time) which has had the most focus & even different gear levers with various types and weights of gear knobs! They do a load of work here on the test rig, then make all these adjustments on the mule car its pretty cool, even met Gordon Murray which was a great experience!

I appreciate though on the other side, that my gearbox is in fact, bone stock and what I've done has had no real benefit. We'll see how it is in a few thousand miles time. Hopefully there's no side effects to changing the oil to something relatively different.

Cheers
Rob
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top