Thread: Transfer case oil. Smell and consistency?

Originally Posted by vbrab

The genuine oil for the transfer case on D3 is same as the auto fluid in D3's (ZF product), so it is very thin and honey coloured and has a strong aromatic odour when new.
Have had the oil confirmed as same as auto fluid from transmisison specialists who build the auto boxes for most of LR dealers and service people in Perth, and have been running same oil in my transfer case, no issues (yet).
Keep it off your skin.

I do not believe this is fact and I’d avoid spreading this information if you do not have factual substantiation. A guy saying something is not a chemical comparison etc. The colour of ZF gearbox fluid is not the same, nor is the smell.

For how often you change it and how little you use I would recommend you use the genuine fluid or a clearly listed alternative such as the royal purple product.

Used genuine ZF oil.
I buy it in 20 litres (ZF Lifeguard 6), and have found that Motospecs (a division GPC asia Pacific, as is Repco), branches in most states ( Motospecs - Home ) provide pretty good service and price for service trans filters and fluid.
The info on whether trans oil is same as gear oil comes from WA firm Transmisisons R Us, who also do most of the main dealer transmissions boxes and also the rebuilds for most major LR service guys.
The fill amount required for atransfer case came from filling the box until it dribbled out the fill hole, then draining that and measuring the amount of fluid, which corresponded with recommended amount of fluid for a fluid change.
Ergo, fill transfer case to fill hole, appears to be same amount at recommend to do an oil chnage and does not require you to pre measure, just fill to dribble out of fill hole.
Transmissions R Us probably get to do the gearboxes as they can R&R the box without removing the body, and they also know their transmissions.
My vehicle is up to 480,000k on original transfer case and runs on Lifeguard 6.

At 0.12c per km for $120 @ 100,000km or say 0.24c at 50,000km change intervals, me personally, I’ll just stick with the factory oil. Glad to hear yours is surviving on the atf fluid.

I might add l, having gone to the shed, I find no consistency between the viscosity of the bottle of transfer case oil compared to the ZF oil. The transfer case oil is thinner for what I have.

Originally Posted by DiscoJeffster

At 0.12c per km for $120 @ 100,000km or say 0.24c at 50,000km change intervals, me personally, I’ll just stick with the factory oil. Glad to hear yours is surviving on the atf fluid.

I might add l, having gone to the shed, I find no consistency between the viscosity of the bottle of transfer case oil compared to the ZF oil. The transfer case oil is thinner for what I have.

Hi Guys I have been using Nulon syntrans in both transfer case and auto transmission for over 70, 000klms on my old D3 and over 60,000klms on my 09D3. Says on the tub replacement for lifeguard 5 & 6. I read years ago on a UK sites a bloke ordered a genuine bottle of transfer case oil when it arrived on one side said transfer case oil with all the specs when he looked at the back it said lifeguard 6 he even posted some pics of it. Figure that one out.
Cheers

Originally Posted by Tinman

Hi Guys I have been using Nulon syntrans in both transfer case and auto transmission for over 70, 000klms on my old D3 and over 60,000klms on my 09D3. Says on the tub replacement for lifeguard 5 & 6. I read years ago on a UK sites a bloke ordered a genuine bottle of transfer case oil when it arrived on one side said transfer case oil with all the specs when he looked at the back it said lifeguard 6 he even posted some pics of it. Figure that one out.
Cheers

I heard that putting a spoon in the top of a bottle of bubbly stops it going flat too. You know what, my bubbly went flat. As I like to say, I’ll believe it when I see it

As I pointed out before, the colours don’t match between lifeguard and the “special transfer case oil”, let alone the fluid consistency is different. Not only that, the maker Magna Steyr is a competitor so why would they do that? Anyhow, I guess if your transfer case is working happily then that’s all that matters.

This is much like the ZF only make oil for their gearboxes. Steyr have their own oil formulation made for their boxes and allow manufacturers to sell it direct as “special”. You can see that for all vehicle manufacturers using their transfer cases, the same applies. This does not imply there isn’t an equivalent, just that much like the ZF versus alternative debate, you can’t be sure what you have really is.

If someone wants to stump up the $$ I can send a sample of each to an analyst I know in the US and get put through a gas chromatography mass spectrometer and see exactly what each one is.
We'll basically reverse engineer them.

Of course that doesn't come cheap....

Our you can just use the right stuff, or a known good alternative.

I admit I was surprised when not only the trans guys, but my service person also told me that they use ZF6 oil in transfer case.
I had been getting it serviced when it was in the city and assumed they were putting whatever was correct oil. When I dropped the transfer case oil to change, what came out was very much ZF6 oil and that had not been changed since I had the auto rebuilt 120k previously by transmission people. I serviced trans twice in that time, but not transfer case.
Whilst I would not use any other brand of trans oil other than ZF6 in the auto, the only thing that convinced me it was alright to put same fluid into transfer case was that was what appeared to come out of it (smell, colour, viscosity) and 2 "experts' telling me it was OK to put it into transfer.
I'd still like to be certain that there was a (one) definitive oil for the transfer case, but when you hear that is the case for the auto (but others put different trans oils in the auto), and then "experts" tell me that I can use alternative oils in transfer case,, I start to wonder if there might be more than one oil that can also go into the transfer case. When I get to the city, will ask a few more "experts".

Originally Posted by DiscoJeffster

I heard that putting a spoon in the top of a bottle of bubbly stops it going flat too. You know what, my bubbly went flat. As I like to say, I’ll believe it when I see it

As I pointed out before, the colours don’t match between lifeguard and the “special transfer case oil”, let alone the fluid consistency is different. Not only that, the maker Magna Steyr is a competitor so why would they do that? Anyhow, I guess if your transfer case is working happily then that’s all that matters.

This is much like the ZF only make oil for their gearboxes. Steyr have their own oil formulation made for their boxes and allow manufacturers to sell it direct as “special”. You can see that for all vehicle manufacturers using their transfer cases, the same applies. This does not imply there isn’t an equivalent, just that much like the ZF versus alternative debate, you can’t be sure what you have really is.

Originally Posted by vbrab

I admit I was surprised when not only the trans guys, but my service person also told me that they use ZF6 oil in transfer case.
I had been getting it serviced when it was in the city and assumed they were putting whatever was correct oil. When I dropped the transfer case oil to change, what came out was very much ZF6 oil and that had not been changed since I had the auto rebuilt 120k previously by transmission people. I serviced trans twice in that time, but not transfer case.
Whilst I would not use any other brand of trans oil other than ZF6 in the auto, the only thing that convinced me it was alright to put same fluid into transfer case was that was what appeared to come out of it (smell, colour, viscosity) and 2 "experts' telling me it was OK to put it into transfer.
I'd still like to be certain that there was a (one) definitive oil for the transfer case, but when you hear that is the case for the auto (but others put different trans oils in the auto), and then "experts" tell me that I can use alternative oils in transfer case,, I start to wonder if there might be more than one oil that can also go into the transfer case. When I get to the city, will ask a few more "experts".

So I did some more investigation and I actually concur with the above. See, don't let it be said I'm not one to listen!

I've found reference to its equivalency in the Motul ATF VI product which is a comparative product for the Lifeguard 6 product. It makes reference to it also being suitable as a replacement for the LR transfer fluid TYK500050
which would align with using Lifeguard as a replacement for the transfer case.

https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/m...pdf?1547574383

And here under specifications:
ZF Lifeguard 6 ATF - Automatic Transmission Fluid for Alfa Romeo 156 Crosswagon 2004 - 2007