JimR

<ul><li><a href="http://www.zf-group.com/pdf/AppChartpasscartrans.pdf">ZF applications pdf.</a></li></ul>

ttuling

That's what it says on the bottle.

Valvoline on the phone is confident that they have similar enough base oil and friction modifier performance to the oils they listed, despite no other oil company to my knowledge claiming to cover as many seemingly disparate applications (T-IV, LT71141, LA 2634) with one fluid. Before this stuff, LT71141 and LA 2634 were different from each other. Still are at a BMW dealership, I expect.

Valvoline may well be right. They may have taken advantage of newer better chemistry to legitimately equal all those fluids. But if they're wrong and converter clutches last half as long as they should, say 125,000 miles instead of 250,000 miles, how "supported by Valvoline" do you expect to be? (It won't surprise me if some 2002-3 transmissions go 250,000 miles.)

Why don't they go through LT71141 testing so that the stuff can be sold through and used by ZF, Audi, BMW etc? It's not that Esso has a secret formula -- Pentosin makes approved stuff too.

Tom

tozoM8

The TC was rebuilt by Dynamic. Their TC clutch is fully compatible with any tranny fluid.

ttuling

No doubt that their clutch is compatible in the sense that it doesn't dissolve in any known automatic transmission fluid.

But there are other kinds of fluid compatibility: how progressively the fluid transmits torque under the varying pressure of a deliberately slipping clutch; and whether the fluid can serve in that role over the long term while protecting itself and the slipping clutch from excessive wear. The converter slip control strategy (implemented in software) plays a role in these kinds of compatibility questions.

I'm sure you'd agree that fluids with wildly inappropriate friction modifiers (e.g. Type F) might be compatible materially with a converter clutch, but could still cause bad wear or performance in a controlled-slip application.

Valvoline is confident that their Mercon V is up to the job, which is more than could be said for the Mobil 1 ATF previously advocated by some. Until the Valvoline turns up on Audi or ZF lists, it may be incompatible with nothing more than an Audi or ZF warranty.

Tom