After I replaced my syncro tranny in Nov 95, I have been querying folks 
about what to replace the tranny oil with when I change it to remove any 
manufacturing remnants.  Neither the VW Dealers I have called nor All German 
Transmissions (the volks that sold me the rebuilt unit) could recommend the 
synthetic.  They did say that it was a better oil in terms of gear 
lubrication, but because it is 'more slippery' than dino oil, it is more apt 
to seep past the gaskets.  That's the problem, not reducing gear life, but 
reducing unit life by loosing fluid.

There was a very good post a while ago that went way in depth about lube oil 
engineering and it included a seciton on additives.  One of the additives 
was a gasket thickener (? i'm not sure of the correct term ?).  It was added 
to oils, primarily synths to make the gaskets thicken, a trait that is 
either inherent or unnecessary with dino oil.

later,
porter_fred%pax9@mr.nawcad.navy.mil
relax and spin
87 syncro
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|<<File Attachment: 00000000.TXT>>
|Some of us have decided not to put Synthetic GL-5 transmission oil in our
|transmissions as a result of information in the manual specifying GL-4 and
|admonitions from tech heads at certain dealers urging that synthetic
|transmission oil is too slippery and can hasten failure of our units. There
|were some scarey posts on this topic about six months ago as I recall.
|
|Thinking the dealer might have non-synthetic GL-4, I dropped over there. 
The
|parts people said they had no GL-4. They said they had transmission fluid 
in
|cans and that this transmission fluid is what they would normally use on my
|car. They said the fluid costs $40 per quart but that the label on the can
|does not specify whether the fluid is synthetic or what its GL rating is so
|they don't know. They said it seemed like the fluid was really good stuff.
|But added that since they didn't know what it was, they suggested I go to
|Trak Auto (FLAPs) where the cans have labels.
|
|I did so and bought GL-5 house brand oil for $1.79 a quart. I could not 
find
|any GL-4 fluid.
|
|I made the reluctant assumption that it is OK to put GL-5 in the gearboxes
|and that it is the "synthetic" part that could cause problems with being to
|slippery (if such problem exists in the first place).
|
|Note that Dennis Haynes puts GL-5 synthetic into his gearbox and sees no 
ill
|from this (also, the front diff in the syncro can take GL-5 synthetic).
|___________________________________
|Derek Drew                           New York, NY
|drew@interport.net (main address for e-mail)
|derekdrew@aol.com (alternate/backup, checked infrequently)
|
|