so i was reading the owners manual today (i have a 06 lt 5spd by the way) and was reading about the manual transmission. it said that the fluid in the manual tranny is atf. i read it over like 5 times, thats what it said. so am i suffering from glaucoma or was the owners manual correct? some funky $#!+!!!

 

its probably true, alot of new cars manual trannys are coming with atf

 

what is ATF, and why would that be a bad thing?

 

automatic transmission fluid...... i know in my ss/sc cobalt it takes the saturn manual trans fluid but it doesnt say that in the book..

 

ATF Automatic Transmission Fluid

 

didnot know that. its crazy. what is this world coming too? so if this is the case then 90w would be out of the question.

 

Yes it use's dexron3 or higher i believe. The properties of dexron are pretty good, its a cleanser, lubricant and washer all at the same time if that makes sense.

 

whats so bad about ATF anyways.... its common in most transmissions I've seen...

 

J-Body guys were switching to synthetic ATF's such as Mobil1 and Redline to get rid of tranny rattle noise in the F23 Getrag which is the same tranny we have matched up to the 2.2L and 2.4L ecotecs. I'll probably switch to Mobil1 with this car too before winter comes for easier shifting. I also don't understand what the problem is, you make it sound like the world is ending and cats and dogs are living together

 

nothing is bad about ATF and its very common practice to use ATF in manuals.

I replaced the factory ATF with mobil 1 ATF. In fact the power steering on my Ford Sterling truck is ATF.

 

The reason that many manual trans use ATF is to lower the shift efforts, especially in cold weather. The negative affect of this is that with ATF, being that it is much thinner than your traditional MTF, gear noise, gear rattle and gear whine are transmitted through the fluid to a greater degree. I have an 06 SS/SC and would be concerned about going to the synthetics due to the very specific recommendation to use the Saturn fluid.

 

We had this dicsussion a while ago on yourcobalt, who would have thought they use ATF... I guess autos are slowly taking over...

 

How does one change the tranny fluid in the 2.2 autos?

 

i was told since cars started going to 5 speeds insted of 4-3, they've used atf(this part i bealive) cause the final gear was bronze or somthing like that (this part i wasnt sure about)

 

Mobil 1, Redline, Royal Purple and B&M in no particular order. For cars that came with conventional gear oil you can buy synthetic 75W 90 to replace it. If the car's gearbox came with gear oil I wouldn't replace it with ATF. If it came with ATF, you can upgrade to synthetic.

ATF is used instead of gear oil for two reasons that I am aware of:
Shift effort is reduced
Less power robbing (easier to spin gears in a lighter oil (think of it as spinning a suspended bike wheel in water as opposed to mud, if that makes any sense)).

 

That is a very good description man.

I have royal purple in my T/As transmission. Yes thicker lube robs a bit mroe power but I'd rather have the extra thick stuff lubing up my gears adn protecting them better than watery ass ATF.