There were several guys talking in the chat about running hyd fluid in auto trans, just thought i get an opinion on this , any benifits and or drawbacks ?

 

I remember that topic a year or two a go. Seems the final consensus leaned towards sticking to the tranny fluid. They are close, but ATF is taken to the next level with additives that fight bubbles, heat buildup, work with the clutches, etc. If you think about it, I don't know of any log splitters, plows, loaders, backhoes, etc, that have clutches in their hydraulic systems.
Not an expert, just the way I see it.

Don

 

im running it in mine, if my tranny falls out ill be first to let you know about it, got 15000 hard miles on it so far and not a problem yet. i did put it in my ford minivan because tranny was flopping around pretty bad and so far it hasnt done it. it drives like a new vehicle so far but who knows it might fall out too.

 

changed out tranny fluid last thurs. it was clean w/no shavings in the pan. seems to work for me

 

What specific brand of fluid are you running in case others want to do the same?

 

im running tractor transmission/hydraulic fluid in 92 4x4. i read about it a long time ago on one of these threads and decided to try it. i told a guy i work with about it and he had a chevy blazer that shifted real bad so he put it in there and it worked real good. i rode with him b4 and after and it did make a difference. my wife can get a lil rough on a transmission and our mini-van started doing same thing so i put tractor/hydraulic fluid in it and hopefully wont have to replace transmission for a while. i was hung up on doing exactly what vehicle manufacturers reccommend with no deviation. but running crane i know that fluid can get very very hot in a system and not blow out those little o-rings that hold up boom and so forth so i decided to give it a shot it worked real good for me but each person is welcome to do his own thing

 

I also asked this question about 1 year ago, or more. I think it was Bushey that sent me the reply, if not, Bushey, I'm sorry for not remembering, but alot of the HEAVY duty manufacturers run it in their trannys. But from what I've been told, it does not have all the additives that the ATF does, so why does it work???? Maybe the BIG trucks don't worry about a sissy shift

 

dont know why it works or how it works but it seems to be slipperier than reg trans fluid. i just know it werked fer me that huked on foniks is a gud thing

 

The best I have been able to find out, trans fluid has more detergents in it which is why you don't use it in power steering. Power steering fluid is 10 wt hydraulic fluid. On the newer transmissions the soft shift came out with whale oil added in Dextron. It broke down easy and gummed up the trans so they came up with a synthetic whale oil in Dextron 11. The shifts are sharper without it. I always used Ford type F in mine for the stronger shifts. B & M can give info on the different fluids, they did a lot of testing resulting in the blue B & M fluid. Without the additive you may get chatter from the torque converter lock up.

 

Over on the Ford boards, a bunch of the guys talk about using hydraulic-fluid, instead of transmission-fluid, and they all swear by it.

I know absolutely nothing about automatics and of dozens and dozens of trucks, the wife's is the only automatic I ever had.

As far as I know, her's is doing as it should.


I am just curious as to how the hydraulic-fluid has worked in the Dodge transmissions over the long run; and, I would assume, there probably are different results in using it in the non-OD as compared to the OD.

 

Wow, talk about a thread from the dead

 

On some boards, it's not cool to bring up old threads.

 

It is certainly not a problem to me, but this sucker is over four years since the last post.

 

It ain't as old as the tires on most of these trucks.


I thought it was a legitimate question.