I have been reading old posts about gear oil, looked in WIS and found that the 400 108 247 according to eeuro used to be "referenced as MTF0063" which shouldn't be mixed with other fluids. My 99 was made in Sweden but has the earlier VIN number so I am not sure what gear oil is in my manual transmission. I read one post which said that the MTF0063 was red. I am wondering if that is true and what color the previous saab fluid was as I woud prefer not to have to flush twice. Any thoughts on this one?
Gear Box Oil Info
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The MTF0063 is red, like a cherry red like ATF, the other fluid is brown/golden (tho depending on age, etc it may vary a bit).
Correct you can't mix MTF0063 and other fluids, and you are meant to double flush when changing over.
IIRC cars didn't start coming with MTF0063 from the factory until around 2001/2002, if your car was switch over after the fact there should be a sticker under the hood (on the radiator cross beam, but I've also seen them stuck to the intake pipe) signifying this.
Personally if it's not MTF0063 coming out then I just refill it with Penzoil Synchromesh without flushing (tho sometimes I'll flush a couple of hundred miles later depending on what work I did to the transmission). If there is MTF0063 in there then I just refill with that.
Correct you can't mix MTF0063 and other fluids, and you are meant to double flush when changing over.
IIRC cars didn't start coming with MTF0063 from the factory until around 2001/2002, if your car was switch over after the fact there should be a sticker under the hood (on the radiator cross beam, but I've also seen them stuck to the intake pipe) signifying this.
Personally if it's not MTF0063 coming out then I just refill it with Penzoil Synchromesh without flushing (tho sometimes I'll flush a couple of hundred miles later depending on what work I did to the transmission). If there is MTF0063 in there then I just refill with that.
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+1 - Jake has it all right The Penzoil is only $8 a quart instead of twice that, with no flush (double flush) required.
On the other side, I will say that changing to MTF0063 has improved shifting significantly (over time) in my trannies. However, I also have to admit that changing to the first new Saab synthetic (original one, golden brown) also improved shifting over time.
The only thing I don't recall exactly is if a '99 came with the new synthetic or not originally or still had the motor oil option. It was around '99 or '00 when they came out with it and most of us swapped over. There was a sticker for that change (triangular shaped) that was supposed to be applied for that too. No guarantee that all shops put it on. Regardless, you can't buy the original synthetic any more so the same rules apply.
On the other side, I will say that changing to MTF0063 has improved shifting significantly (over time) in my trannies. However, I also have to admit that changing to the first new Saab synthetic (original one, golden brown) also improved shifting over time.
The only thing I don't recall exactly is if a '99 came with the new synthetic or not originally or still had the motor oil option. It was around '99 or '00 when they came out with it and most of us swapped over. There was a sticker for that change (triangular shaped) that was supposed to be applied for that too. No guarantee that all shops put it on. Regardless, you can't buy the original synthetic any more so the same rules apply.
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Redline MTL is also compatible with the original synthetic. I used that for a lot of years after I switched my '97 from the original motor oil to the first synthetic, and then decided it was time to change it. The other thing that was supposed to be done to transmissions that received the original synthetic was that they got a new fill plug that had a very large hex-shaped head with the synthetic oil's part number stamped in it.
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