Lubricants and Gear Boxes

[Roger_Needham]

This is a vast topic. It is subjective and prone to personal issues. Everyone has their favourite. Everyone thinks that their choice is the best. So I'm bound to raise queries comments and criticism here - but here goes anyway.

I would like to address the subject of gear oil lubricant in manual Land Rover gear boxes that specify MTF94.

Texaco MTF94 was developed specifically for the Land Rover manual gear boxes with LR engineers. It has a particular specification and material make up. It is used as a factory fill lubricant in gear boxes. There is no other lubricant manufacturer that makes it.

Those LR franchised workshops that do not use MTF94 will tell you that the lubricant that they use is the equivelant. It cannot be due to the fact that MTF94 is only produced by Texaco ( Chevron Texaco ). Texaco supply it to LR for resale in LR bottles available from the parts depts.

All other gear box lubes do not provide the same performance or protection as MTF94. I have known this for years and to support this - my LR Disco 2 was serviced at the local dealership. I asked them if they would use the MTF94, they of course replied that they had the equivelant through another brand. I advised tham that they were wrong. However they still fitted the other brand. Along came the cold weather - we could not easily engage 2nd gear when the box was cold and even when warm it was difficult to select. My wife had a close call several times at junctions - so I returned the vehicle, they fitted MTF94 and the problems went away - immediately. How many times have we heard that 2nd gear is always and has always been difficult to select in Discos? Well mine isn't.

So when I hear about transmission problems with Discos................afterall there has to be a reason why LR have fitted MTF94 as a factory fill lube for all these years.

This is not an advert for MTF94 but merely a statement of fact.

Choose wisely - remember, some know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

[buzz]

This is a vast topic. It is subjective and prone to personal issues. Everyone has their favourite. Everyone thinks that their choice is the best. So I'm bound to raise queries comments and criticism here - but here goes anyway.

I would like to address the subject of gear oil lubricant in manual Land Rover gear boxes that specify MTF94.

Texaco MTF94 was developed specifically for the Land Rover manual gear boxes with LR engineers. It has a particular specification and material make up. It is used as a factory fill lubricant in gear boxes. There is no other lubricant manufacturer that makes it.

Those LR franchised workshops that do not use MTF94 will tell you that the lubricant that they use is the equivelant. It cannot be due to the fact that MTF94 is only produced by Texaco ( Chevron Texaco ). Texaco supply it to LR for resale in LR bottles available from the parts depts.

All other gear box lubes do not provide the same performance or protection as MTF94. I have known this for years and to support this - my LR Disco 2 was serviced at the local dealership. I asked them if they would use the MTF94, they of course replied that they had the equivelant through another brand. I advised tham that they were wrong. However they still fitted the other brand. Along came the cold weather - we could not easily engage 2nd gear when the box was cold and even when warm it was difficult to select. My wife had a close call several times at junctions - so I returned the vehicle, they fitted MTF94 and the problems went away - immediately. How many times have we heard that 2nd gear is always and has always been difficult to select in Discos? Well mine isn't.

So when I hear about transmission problems with Discos................afterall there has to be a reason why LR have fitted MTF94 as a factory fill lube for all these years.

This is not an advert for MTF94 but merely a statement of fact.

Well I have had my Range Rover now for about 6 months, I initialy had the second gear problem, I think one of the major 'problems' is you have to get used to how the gearbox responds in a Landrover, second I agree that the lubrication is very important, I have just changed the oils in my complete drive train, IE Diffs transfere case and gearbox.
As we are talking about the gearbox here, I had started a thread regarding gear oil and queried which oil to be the best.
Whether it be ATF or MTF, mineral or synthetic. Lots of people on here are landrover owners and there is a lot of experience here.
I was recomended to use ATF in the gearbox and if possible synthetic, the shop I went to buy the oil from didn't have the synthetic oil I wanted so I bought the BP mineral, equivalent.

Gear changes are no problem and second gear selection is no problem either. I have the LT77 gearbox which is also known to be "notchy"

To have also mentioned everything, I do live in Malta and our warm weather may be a factor in this...

[buzz]

Oh, how rude of me, also Welcome to the forums.
Hope you have a good time here.

[paul vp uk]

a few weeks ago had the gearbox oil changed by local garage
they put in gear oil Result no second gear untill it warmed up.
I changed it to ATF Automatic transmission fluid (Pink stuff)

Hey presto perfect gears whatever temp.

1997 300 TDI Disco Dont actually know which gearbox is fitted there seams to be different ones