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Re: Noisy Gearbox
Posted by lochabay (more from lochabay) on Tue, 20 Mar 2001 23:05:51
In Reply to: , Kok Chen, Sat, 17 Dec 1988 12:00:00 

All of the oldtimers like me must be leaving saabnet.  Too many new car
owners. Your problem was the subject of much discussion on Saabnet
several years ago.  I will tell you as best I remember.

 For years, Saab maintained that synthetic oil was bad for the 5 speeds,
continuing to do so in the face of mounting evidence that the trannys
with regular oil were croaking at 100,000 miles, and those with
synthetic were achieving 200,000 plus miles.  The trannys were not
designed properly, were failing, and Saab had to have something or
someone to blame, and synthetic oil installed by careless owners was a
nice candidate.  They finally fixed the tranny problem by using heavier
gears in 1988/89, and some years later admitted that synthetic oil was
not only not bad for their transmissions, but was recommended.  Saabs
now come with synthetic in the trannys, and have for several years.
So, you did the right thing putting the synthetic in your car.  The only
problem might be leaking seals.  For reasons nobody can explain, trannys
which start out with regular oil, and then switch to synthetic,
sometimes have leaking seals after the switch, while those that had
synthetic from the start don't leak.  I once e-mailed Redline about this
concerning their Redline MTL, and the chemist there told me he had not
heard of it, that he had switched his Saab to Redline with no problem.
He said that if this occurs, you can add a little seal expander to the
oil, but to be careful not to add too much.

I note that this thread is entitled 'Noisy Gearbox'.  I must have missed
the original message.  Neither regular nor synthetic oil will produce a
'noisy gearbox'.  If you have this problem, your tranny is going the way
of so many before.  How do I know this?

Hope this helps.

David Lochabay
lochabayno39sdcx6spamx782itecnmi.com

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