91 civic tranny oil?

I read somewhere that honda uses regular engine oil for their transmissions
in the 91 civic.
Should i do this or use specific transmission oil?

Winnoc

 

They did in 1991.

Use MTF.

 

10w30 or Honda MTF. Since tranny is 13 years old, the MTF is not gonna make
a difference now.

--
Charles Tague
93 Honda Civic DX HB
1.6L SOHC VTEC 14.85 @ 89 mph,1.98 60 ft.
With ZEX 85 hp ZEX 13.09 @ 103 mph, 1.81 60ft.
86 Pontiac Trans Am
225/50/15 GForce Drag Radials
305 peanut cammed 15.29 @ 88 mph
http://home.cinci.rr.com/mistab0ne/

 

I've had two hondas. both used SAE 30 (regular oil) for the
gear lubrication on the manual transmission.

 

If you have manual tranny then put regular motor oil like 10W-40 or 10W-30
(92-95 Civic Specs)
If you have automatic then there is Honda ATF. I am not sure if you can
substitute it with Dexron III or other ATF. I would think you cannot.

 

That's what they recommended back then - 10W/30. The regular engine oil
has changed though and is not really suitable any longer. Use the Honda
MTF.

Rgds, George Macdonald

"Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean you're not psychotic" - Who, me??

 

I'd like to correct myself here....

my old honda said to use I 'thought' SAE 30.
I checked the manual on my 'newer' honda yesterday
and it said to use 2quarts of 10w-30 or 10w-40 (depending
on the temps you drove in).

 

Current engine oils are just not suitable for a gearbox any longer.

Rgds, George Macdonald

"Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean you're not psychotic" - Who, me??

 

For the minor cost difference of the Honda MTF fluid, get it, and your
tranny will thank you.

 

so what is so different about motor oil nowadays that it is no so good for
the tranny's gears?
I thought all the new oils exceed previously issued standards...

me??

 

For the most part, you are correct. Newer oils tend to be more stable,
less volatile and less likely to boil off ... but for emissions
reasons, they have fewer essential organo-metallic additives in them,
specifically zinc and phosphorous which can poison catalytic
converters under the right (wrong conditions).

Tranny oils like MTF have greater amounts of zinc and phosphorous ...
as much as 1.5% which is what better oils used to have (SG and
previous).

Some other specialty lubes (such as motorcycle oils where the engine
and the tranny share a sump) have a fair amount of boron (borate
esters) in the formula ... as does Red Line MTL & MT-90. These act as
barrier wear protection (not unlike zinc and phos.) when the
hydrodynamic oil layers fails ... a common occurence in a gearbox
under load.

--- Bror Jace

 

thanks for the chemistry lesson. It was pretty cool to read. I 'll consider
getting an MTF next time.

 

(Bror Jace) melodiously murmured in

A word of caution though: Even the best lube will not prevent bearing
failure due to compressive loading. All gearboxes will eventually fail from
this alone, and you can hasten failure greatly through lugging the engine,
city driving, heavy acceleration from standstill, shifting at low rpms,
towing, overloading the car and other abuses.