It's about time for me to change the gear oil (trans and diff) on my car so I'm looking at various options.

It seems like the Subaru stuff is pretty good? But there's two flavors, High Performance and Extra-S. I'm not sure which would be better for me. I'm kinda leaning towards High Performance. I'm not sure the Extra-S is necessary.

But then there's all kinda of other brands out there too. Amsoil and Motul seem to be popular.

I also doubt that I need to come up with a cocktail for my car.




Who knows **** about gear oil?

 

The high perf is pretty, new it seems. Probably not a lot of folks have tried it...and may be geared (I kill me) for newer boxes. If you can get extraS, I'd do it on an '09. Livermore subaru sold me some by the quart a few years back, if you don't mind the drive; bring your own container.

Rear end...anything that meets OEM spec s/b fine unless you are a track-rat.

 

I may need to do some more research on the High Performance. It's also a bit cheaper than Extra-S. I bet I could get a decent deal on either at Stevens Creek.

I do drive the car hard, but I'm not exactly slamming gears and putting down a lot of power. I'm inclined to match the rear for simplicity and I don't mind a little extra protection considering I do spin a wheel in the air a lot.

 

Just for sake of availability and not having to find a place for extra-s. My vote is motul gear 300.

 

There seems to be a rumor that Subaru High Performance is Extra-S... It's also ~$5 cheaper per quart than Extra-S and Motul.

 

try to get some Swepco from LIC, i liked it way better than the Extra-S

 

I switched from extra-s to motul gear oil. When my mechanic found out he urged me to switch back (at the next service interval) but now I can't recall exactly why. I will see if I can dig up the conversation.

EDIT: He said motul was fine in the diff but to use extra-s in the tranny.

 

Ponder: when has it ever been the case where a individual quart/ounce/etc. of *anything* is cheaper than the bulk packaged version of the "same" thing?

Plus, I think I saw that the MSDS indicates they are different (maker, viscosity, etc.). Will check on that...

 

I'm not buying in bulk?

I understand that I'll need 4.3 quarts (which is annoying). I'd be amazed if 5 quarts would ever cost more than 2 gallons. Even though 2 gallons would be a better value, I don't want almost an entire gallon sitting in the garage until I need it again about 2 years later.

 

at 285k miles, my input bearing on primary shaft is rattling. switched to Extra S and quieted down bearing a little bit for a better peace of mind. only a temp fix until after Subiefest.

 

Extra-S or Motul

 

http://m.ebay.com/itm?itemId=181502729651

 

Subaru 75W90 Extra-S Gear & Transmission Fluid

Fred Beans is officially weird... According to Amazon, Fred is out of stock. But then there's a lot of 6 on eBay and now signs of low stock on their website.

They also describe Extra-S yet the picture is High Performance...

 

Swepco


Nothing like Smurf Blood

 

I'd only seen the HP in quarts and the extra S in 20 liter pails (~ 5 gallons/20 quarts), unless split into quarts, a la fred beans or subie shops (42motorsports?).

Extra S seems to run $10-12/quart (~ 1 L) retail (w/o shipping, etc.). You indicated HP is ~$5 less per quart bottle, so call it $5/quart. It defies logic to have "the same" fluid be 50% less per unit when all packaged up, labeled, shipped, etc. individually, compared to bulk stuff. C/N: they be different, most likely. 20L pails of ExS are ~$150, methinks...about $7.50/qt.

At least HP is made by idemitsu... Some forum post said they emailed fredbeans.com and they said its just extra-S in quart bottles, another site emailed said it's different loob.

Does your '09 really need 4.3 quarts for a drain and fill (i.e. some remains inside)? be sure that's not the dry fill volume. the old (GD/GG) 5MTs were ~3.7 qt. for Drain/fill.