Cheapest Place to Buy Lifeguard 6 by the Litre

**Eric SDV6SE** · 4th August 2020, 08:41 AM

Originally Posted by LR3 Disco Owner

Okay so hello everyone, I am new to this forum and LR owing in General. I bought a 2008 TDV6 Discovery 3 at the end of June and I am generally very pleased with it. I knew it needed the brakes doing and upon purchasing it I decided I would do a service and change filters, fluids etc as well, which is when I started reading on here and on the UK LR forums about the joys of the 6HP26 transmission!

Well you can imagine my excitement after reading about shuddering transmissions, for it to then shudder as it had been watching me read about it and decided to provide a demonstration of what it was like, on take off from a set of lights!
I had a good look through the service history and receipts that came with it and identified it had had the metal pan and fluid changed at TRS back in 2014 at 116,000km with LG6 fluid and then it had a service and inspection with a 'full flush' at around 200,000km about 18 months ago.
I have since found out from the company that did the service at 200K that they used Fuchs Titan 4400 ATF.
I'm going to give some instant shudder fixx a go at first, and intend to attempt a diy mega flush or multiple changes on my own.
I have called ZF and they passed me onto Mototspec who quoted, hopefully you're sitting down, $62/L for LG6!

He also suggested Febi ATF as an alternative for $45/L.
I then talked to my local Repco and after the usual 'this is what the computer says', I got him to listen and gave him the part number from on here and low and behold it was there, good news was they were offering the LG6 at $46/L so I thought I would try my luck and see what the bulk price for 20L would be and once he picked his jaw up off the floor he managed to stammer out that 20L was $922!!!! Now compare that to say Penrite ATF BMV which is $245 for 20L and my question has to be, is the LG6 4x as good?

Also is the mega flush worth it in terms of volume of ATF used or will several changes have the same effect?

Has anyone tried using one of those drill powered pumps such as this Josco Drill Powered Pump | Bunnings Warehouse to pump the new fluid in? I've read multiple posts about using air pressure or head pressure generated through height, but haven't found anything about using a pump.

Any thoughts on this are gladly received, especially from those using the penrite atf bmv or anyone who knows of cheaper supply of the LG6.

In the back of my mind I'm thinking if the penrite is ok, I can spend the same money as the 20L of LG6 and buy an IID tool instead!

Welcome to the forum (nuthouse?)

Penrite BMV is absolutely ok as a direct replacement for LG6. Please do a full replacement and not a part drain and fill, as thats a waste of time and money imo. Did mine at ~160000km along with a valve body rebuild and zip gen2 kit, and no issues (now at 201000km).

What does work well in terms of a pump is a $10 pressure sprayer from bunnings, just modify the end with a bit of rubber hose to get it intobthe filler plug. Those pumps are good and the bottle holds enough atf to fill the transmission. Dont recommend air pressure as this can dislodge seals and blow rubbish through the vb and transmission.

**FisherX** · 5th August 2020, 09:51 AM

I use Valvoline Maxlife ATF. It's a full synthetic and compatible with the ZF boxes up to Lifeguard 8. It's cheap and you can even get it at Bunnings for $38 for 4L.

MaxLife™ Multi-Vehicle ATF : Product Catalog - Valvoline™

US_Val_MLMultiVehicle_ATF_EN.pdf - DocuSign CLM

Valvoline 4L Maxlife ATF Fluid | Bunnings Warehouse

Valvoline Transmission Fluid MaxLife ATF 20L | Sparesbox

**101RRS** · 5th August 2020, 12:37 PM

Originally Posted by FisherX

I use Valvoline Maxlife ATF. It's a full synthetic and compatible with the ZF boxes up to Lifeguard 8.

So is this Valvoline saying it is compatible or ZF saying it is compatible - there is a big difference. There have been oils in the past (Nulon comes to mind) that claimed it was compatible but was not on the ZF list - after a year or so the Nulon claim was dropped.

Interestingly Valvoline say it is compatible up to LG8 and yet LG6 is not even compatible with LG8.

The only oil I would consider as an alternative to LG6 are Ford and BMW oils that were out into their ZF and ZF clone boxes.

Garry

**Eric SDV6SE** · 5th August 2020, 08:16 PM

Originally Posted by 101RRS

So is this Valvoline saying it is compatible or ZF saying it is compatible - there is a big difference. There have been oils in the past (Nulon comes to mind) that claimed it was compatible but was not on the ZF list - after a year or so the Nulon claim was dropped.

Interestingly Valvoline say it is compatible up to LG8 and yet LG6 is not even compatible with LG8.

The only oil I would consider as an alternative to LG6 are Ford and BMW oils that were out into their ZF and ZF clone boxes.

Garry

ZF clone?? Please elaborate.

BMW runs the same genuine ZF platform across several series, only difference is rwd bmws do not have the same output shafts for output into a transfer case that our 4wds need.

My original fitment ZF 6HP28 runs a bmw steel pan, filter and gasket set and the last 40,000km on penrite BMV with no issues is good enough for me to say its an acceptable alternative to LG6 fluids.

The valvoline us data sheet claims compatibility with ZF LG8 and i understand ZF LG6 is not the same as LG8 (without cross checking data sheets) in terms of viscosity.

But if it works, why not?

**PerthDisco** · 5th August 2020, 08:46 PM

Originally Posted by Eric SDV6SE

My original fitment ZF 6HP28

I thought they were 26s or did they update at some point?

**101RRS** · 5th August 2020, 09:00 PM

Originally Posted by Eric SDV6SE

ZF clone?? Please elaborate.

The Ford 6R80 auto transmission is made by Ford under licence from ZF and is a clone of the ZF 6HP26 as fitted to the D3s etc - the info is that casings and tolerances are not quite as good as the ZF version but still works OK - though issues have shown up in the Ranger.

**Eric SDV6SE** · 5th August 2020, 10:34 PM

Originally Posted by PerthDisco

I thought they were 26s or did they update at some point?

My understanding is that the early d4 2.7 came wirh the ZF6HP26. The HP28 was fitted to the 3.0l and 2.7 from 2009 on, as the HP26 was superseded by the 28. The new 8spd ZF8HP are 32 or 34 i think, the last two numbers referring to the torque rating.
There is s rating plae on the lh side of the housing that you can decode pretty easily.

**DiscoJeffster** · 6th August 2020, 12:33 AM

Originally Posted by PerthDisco

I thought they were 26s or did they update at some point?

3L got the 28 which is a higher torque rating capacity box

**kelvo** · 6th August 2020, 07:56 AM

Originally Posted by Eric SDV6SE

My understanding is that the early d4 2.7 came wirh the ZF6HP26. The HP28 was fitted to the 3.0l and 2.7 from 2009 on, as the HP26 was superseded by the 28. The new 8spd ZF8HP are 32 or 34 i think, the last two numbers referring to the torque rating.
There is s rating plae on the lh side of the housing that you can decode pretty easily.

The 8-speeds in the D4/RRS are 8HP70 (700Nm).

**twr7cx** · 6th August 2020, 11:14 AM

My local Repco is still the cheapest place to order it in by the litre.

Second cheapest source I've found is one of the transmission shops selling through eBay bulk 6 and 8 boxes off.

Thread: Cheapest Place to Buy Lifeguard 6 by the Litre

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