Special Fluids and Oils

Back in the 80's, there was only really one special fluid Japanese car mechanics had to worry about -- Honda power steering fluid. It was different from the power steering fluid used by all the other manufacturers. Using the wrong stuff could cause problems. Other than that, a shop like ours could stock one kind of transmission fluid, one kind of gear oil, one kind of coolant, one kind of motor oil in a couple different weights; life was simple.

Now it seems like each manufacturer will release a new special and different fluid every couple years. Any shop wanting to even the most basic maintenance will need to stock all of the various oils and fluids for all of the cars they want to service. Yet another reason to specialize!

 

This is the newest of our specialty fluids. It's the transaxle fluid for the 2004 and newer Prius -- ATF WS. I just found out WS stands for "World Standard" from Toyota's trade journal. No word on whether the rest of the world knows about the new standard though :)

WS fluid currently runs $42 / gallon, about 3 times the price of conventional ATF. Like all special fluids, who knows what kind of damage might result from using the wrong stuff. It always pays to be aware of which fluids belong in which cars.

 

This is Toyota's Type T4 transmission fluid. It supercedes Type T, T2, and T3. Toyota is claiming the fluid does not need to be replaced under "normal operating conditions". We strongly disagree. We recommend changing Type T4 fluid every 15K miles, just like regular ATF. Type T4 is not particularly expensive, and the total cost of a transmission drain and fill is only slightly more than a motor oil change.

 
This is Mazda's Type T4 fluid. Is it the same as Toyota T4? Who knows. When in doubt, better to use the Genuine fluid from the dealer, which is what we do.
This is Mazda's M5 transmission fluid, which is frequently referred to as MV fluid in the manual (Roman numeral V=5). You'd think by the year MMVII we'd be able to discontinue the use of Roman numerals :)

This is Nissan's Matic-D. We suspect this fluid is regular Dexron III ATF, but we're not sure, so we use the Matic D whenever the manual calls for it.

 

This is Nissan's Matic K fluid. It is fairly expensive and is usually used on higher end Nissans. We're recommending 15K intervals. If you can afford a luxury car, you ought to be able to afford the luxury fluid. If not, you definitely won't be able to afford the luxury breakdown.

 

This is Honda's ATF-Z1 automatic transmission fluid.

Honda has been using a special transmission fluid for a while. In some of the older Honda manuals, they recommend Dexron II be used when Genuine Honda ATF is not available. Some of our fluid suppliers said that the Honda ATF was just Dexron II (instead of the more popular Dexron III. The older Honda transmissions would often exhibit harsh shifting, especially in the morning, when Dexron III was used, but it did not seem to do any lasting damage.

However, Honda has added some very unusual transmission designs like the CVT (continuously variable transmission) and the new ATF-Z1 is what they recommend were recommending for all Honda transmissions, past and present. We would strongly urge you to use only ATF-Z1 for any modern non-CVT Honda transmission. When you come to Art's, you can be sure that your Honda will be refilled with ATF-Z1

 
CVT fluid was introduced around 1996 for the Civic HX with the Continuously Variable Transmission. In late 2000, Honda's newsletter, Service News, announced that Honda CVT was no longer available, and ATF-Z1 should be used in CVT transmissions instead. Five years later, we noticed the 2006 Civic dipstick had, "Use only CVT F" printed on it. We called our dealer and found CVT fluid was back. Another $300 in inventory and 14 cubic feet of storage space, hooray. The back of the bottle states CVT fluid is recommended for all Hondas with CVT transmissions (Civic HX, GX, & Hybrid as well as the Insight Hybrid)

This is Toyota's Long Life coolant. Other than being red/pink in color and low silicate, there's nothing special about it as far as we can tell. We used it because we didn't want to cause problems for our customers when they took their cars in for warranty work. Toyota made a lot of noise about high silicate coolants causing water pump seal failure, and we didn't want to give them a reason not to warranty one of our customer's cars.

We now use Toyota's Super Long Life Coolant instead.

 

This is Toyota's new Super Long Life Coolant. It's red like Long Life coolant, but is premixed. It's required on some 2004 & newer Toyotas and is backward compatible with all Toyotas. We like the premixed coolants, even though they are usually full price for 1/2 strength and create a lot more plastic bottles for us to recycle. We recommend replacing coolant every 2-3 years or 30K, even with with Super Long Life Coolant. We think it's better to be safe than sorry. Maybe we'll sing a different tune when Toyota releases their Super-Duper Long Life Coolant :)

 

This is Honda Type 2 Coolant. It was originally green, but apparently Honda decided that the green wasn't standing out well enough in the crowd of different coolants , so they switched to Vulcan Blood Blue. As far as I can tell, it's pretty much the same as the Toyota Red coolant; it's low silicate, ethylene glycol based. We like the premixed coolants because there is no chance for mixing error and even though the bay area's water is very soft, distilled water is even better. Honda recommends the first coolant change at 120K. We think this is foolish unless you drive 40,000 miles a year. We recommend changing Type 2 coolant every 2-3 years or 30K.

 

This is Hondas Dual Pump fluid. It's an odd name considering it's differential fluid for the limited slip rear differential on the CR-V. When this fluid degrades, or is replaced with the wrong stuff, the differential will make a horrible noise in tight turns. It sounds similar to a tire rubbing on the fender. If a CRV is making a noise from the rear in turns, replacing the differential oil is always the first thing to try. If that does not cure the problem, Honda has issued a service bulletin with a fix for differential noise.

 

VTM-4 is currently found in the Honda Pilot and the Acura MDX. The first differential fluid change is due at 7,500 miles, which surprises a lot of owners. After the first fluid change, Honda recommends replacing the fluid on 15K intervals. This is a about twice as frequent as usual. There is a TSB for judder or noise when turning for the MDX and the Pilot. The solution is to change the VTM fluid, drive in a figure 8 pattern for a while, then change the fluid again.

 

Honda MTF

Honda manual transmission fluid is required for all Hondas 1996 and newer, and is backwards compatible for older Hondas. Before 1996 it is acceptable to use 10W30 motor oil for the transmission. We like to use the Honda MTF for all Hondas. We wish it came in 16 gallon drums instead of quart bottles. It's a pain emptying the quarts into our pumping carts and it a waste of plastic.

 

This is Honda 0W-20 motor oil for use in the Insight and Civic Hybrid. 0W-20 is very thin. Both the Civic and Insight have very tight main bearing clearances (.00095" , just under one thousandth of an inch, about half of what most engines run). Not only will using the wrong oil reduce fuel economy, but may actually ruin the engine. Thicker oil may not be able to squeeze in between the bearing and the journal when cold and cause some serious damage. Honda is currently the only manufacturer using 0W-20 oil.

 

This is Honda 5W20 motor oil. 5W20 is pretty thin. In the Late '90s when Honda introduced it, no other cars were using it and the only supplier was Honda. Now Ford, and perhaps other, are using 5W20, and Castrol could supply us with this weight. We decided to stick with the Genuine Honda oil.

 

This is Honda Ultra Flange II. It's not really a fluid; it's more of a sealing paste. Honda uses it to seal the oil pan on some of the models with aluminum oil pans. There are a lot of different silicone sealers, most of them seem to work very well. Most of them are similarly priced. We figure, why not use the manufacturer's recommended sealer for each application... just in case.

 

This is Toyota FIPG (Form In Place Gasket) for engine sealing. It works very well and is one of our favorite silicone sealers.

 

This is Toyota FIPG for transmission sealing. Unlike FIPG for motor oil (which is black), transmission FIPG is orange. Obviously, the dye color of a silicone sealer will have no effect on performance, but many mechanics have a negative association with orange colored sealants, as it was very popular with mechanics who used poor quality aftermarket parts in the '90s. We'd see a car come in with orange silicone peeking at us from the compartment our first thought might be, "Oh no! Who's been hacking on this poor car?" Anyway, Toyota says it's the right stuff to use, so we do, even though it's orange.

 

Subaru cooling system conditioner. This is a "stop leak" additive introduced to stop head gaskets from leaking on the 2000-2003 2.5L SOHC motors. Owners received a recall notice, the cooling system conditioner was added, and owners were advised that they needed to add the cooling system conditioner with every coolant change, forever. We keep a couple cases in stock, and frequently use it on the 1996-1999 2.5 DOHC motor, since it seems to have even worse head gasket problems.

 

Toyota Hybrid air conditioning oil. The high voltage used to drive the AC compressor on Toyota and some Honda compressors is not compatable with any of the conventional AC oils. If you want to turn a potentially profitable AC service into a $3000+ shop expense, just add some ester, PAG, or mineral oil to an HV AC system. It won't just not work, it will cause warning lights and permenant damage to the AC system.

 

Toyota super Charger oil

Supercharger oil is $37 for 50ml (about 2 oz), making it the most expensive fluid we sell. This is an often overlooked maintenance item for the super charged Previa, and some Trucks with Toyota add on super chargers. If the oil is allowed to run out, the super charger may be damaged, leading to a very expensive repair bill.