...but heres my take on it: Use only 10w30 fossil engine oil or change with the new Saab synthetic fluid. Unless something has changed in the past few months, Saab does approve this fluid for pre-'94 trannies if the proper procedures are followed. This fluid is NOT compatible with the oil now in your transaxle! There is no service interval on the transaxle oil, so you could never change it and be within service guidelines. Whether to change or not is controversial, but if I had your '91 I'd probably suck what I could out of drain plug using a vacuum pump and replace it periodically with 10w30 Castrol GTX. Saab admonishes against using synthetic oil.

Also, be very careful replacing with boutique fluids like Redline MTL. I did this and in a few months my transaxle disintegrated, and I'm not alone.
An inordinate number of people have reported similar failures here, and I feel strongly that the fluids mentioned above should be your only options.
I emailed Redline with a recommendation that they issue a warning for using MTL in 9K transaxles, and although they fell short of admitting any guilt, suggested that it was too thin for that tranny.

I replaced the stock oil in my '95 Aero with the new Saab fluid about two years ago, and it works fine. It reportedly eases stress on bearings and gears, and prolongs the life of the unit. But the '91 has no drain plug like the newer generation of transaxles have, and I'd be reluctant to change without some method for draining ALL the old fluid. Again, the two fluids are not compatible. I have a TSB here that covers such a procedure, and if you're interested I could email it to you.


posted by 24.39....

• Manual Transmission Oil, Philip Goldstein, Sat, 29 Dec 2001 17:16:26
  • Re: Manual Transmission Oil, Joe Ek, Mon, 31 Dec 2001 16:30:32
  • Avoid Saab Synthetic!!!, saabaru, Mon, 31 Dec 2001 11:02:24
  • This is a topic of great controversy here..., Bob Davis, Mon, 31 Dec 2001 10:04:54 <-- Viewing This Message
  • My take on it, Quasimotor, Sat, 29 Dec 2001 21:25:07
  • Manual Transmission Oil- Saab has a special gear oil .., RJ, Sat, 29 Dec 2001 18:19:34
    • Re: Manual Transmission Oil, Philip Goldstein, Thu, 3 Jan 2002 12:23:20
    • That oil is NOT for pre 94 transmissions. n/m, Anders, Sat, 29 Dec 2001 19:39:47

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