I was talking to a dealership line mechanic today. He suggested adding a quart of synthetic motor oil to my Dodge transmission every year. He claims it will lengthen the transmission life a great deal.
I've never heard of this and wonder if it is a tall tale he was putting out. He is known to do that every once in a while.

 

Don't do that....LOL I have heard of folks running hydrolic fluid but I never would.

 

Now you know why he works at the dealership instead of some place like Cummins or Caterpillar where he can make better money

 

Actually, the transgo shift kits in the past recommended 3 quarts of Mobil 1 synthetic with the kit!!!!
I've done it for years and found no down side to it.
Be careful what synthetic you use.

 

What is the upside of doing it?

 

I would have to say it increases the viscoscity, better lubes and reduces the internal leaks these trans are famous for.

 

In the older units that used Dexron a mixture of 10 wt motor oil and hydraulic fluid worked pretty well. I would not use it in the newer units necause the solenoids are a lot tempermental.

One quart isn't going to make a big difference either way. One would have to mix 1/2 and 1/2 or 1/3 to 2/3 to make a significant difference.

 

What about running a DEX 6 or another manufactors trans fluid? ive heard different stories saying u can or u cant?

 

when i was at Autorama, there was a pulling team with Dodge Cummins there, they use hydraulic oil only in there pulling transmissions, i didn't ask why?
there is something to it.

 

Yeah, that something is special built transmissions that hook hard and need to stay hooked under power. What you don't know is they are pulled every season, or more often, and rebuilt to be able to do that with abrasive fluid.

Not exactly what you want on a DD.

 

Abrasive hydraulic oil? haha nice. Just like the guys that talk about ATF's "gritty" additives

Hydraulic oil doesn't have the necessary additives in it to properly work with the fiber clutches used in our transmissions, but it does have better shear properties - very useful in high torque applications. The big puller boys that use hydraulic oil do it to utilize the better shear properties for the gears, but do not use the same type of fiber disks in their rebuilds as we do.

Hydraulic oil is absolutely not abrasive at all. Sand is abrasive.

All the power shift transmissions used in the AG industry use hydraulic oil. There are only two real difference between them and our auto's - different fibers in the clutch packs and the AG trannies deal with much higher torque loads. Both have super tight tolerance sensors, both have gears, bearings and an oil pump that need lubrication, both have clutch packs with fiber disks, both have rubber and steel seals, etc etc etc....

 

The effect is abrasive when used with the typical fiber clutches in a normal tranmission. Mixing motor oil mitigates that effect and provides better cushion and slip so it doesn't eat the frictions.

Technically, the fluid is not abrasive but its effect in certain types of transmissions is categorically the same as adding sand. Abrasive is just used as a comparison to demonstrate the effects.

 

Is it really so hard to put the fluid that the mfg says should be in it?

 

in heavy equipment the manufacture say you must use there fluid in trans, reversers, diffs bla bla bla. which i do.

some of there fluids is $90 for a 5 gallon pail, make me wonder if there spec is just to make money?

now in Volvo loaders they use 15-40 motor oil everywhere including the trans, there transmissions are bullet proof, we have 9 of them, 4 over 20,000 hours.

the drives, that is a basic is a wet clutch hydraulic oil due to internal brakes, (standard tractor hydraulic fluid)

Volvo made it simple.

 

Thanks for the confirmation and info!
Supposedly the motor oil helps the bushings in the pumps and keeps the seals more "flexible" and less like to crack or wear.