

| Subject: | Re: Who makes GL-4 transmission oil and why do I need it? |
| From: | Rico Sapolich |
| Date: | Tue, 29 Aug 2000 12:00:30 EDT |
In a message dated 8/29/00 12:23:46 AM, vanagon@volkswagen.org writes: << I've been going all through the parts stores here in town asking for GL-4 transmission fluid for my 88 Syncro. >> David, Your best bet is to go to an industrial lubricants distributor. I too recently went through this quest for that Holy Grail, GL-4 gear oil and I have concluded that such a thing no longer exists in the catalogues of major lubricant vendors. I did find 3 manufacturers who offer gear lubes which are rated for API use categories GL-3 through GL-5. These lubes are available from Mobil, Coastal and, the creme de la creme, Lubriplate. I would have bought the Lubriplate but, my local distributor did not stock it and wanted me to buy a case lot. With the Lubriplate costing about $20US/GAL, I decided to stop being so anal and bought 2 GAL of the Coastal version at Autozone for about $5US/GAL. If you carefully read the label on your 35LB. pail of Pennzoil gear lube, you MAY find that it too is multi-rated for API use categories GL-3 through GL-5. I did find that the lubricants I was using, Mobil Synthetic and Wolfshead are rated for GL-5 use ONLY. In fact, in their literature Mobil specifically notes that their synthetic is not for GL-4 applications. I hope you can put a Canadian spin on the foregoing information. Rich
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