This is one year, about 12k miles of wear with Valvoline 75W-90 GL-5 gear oil. If you run GL-5 fluid, this will happen to you.

 

You should use some redline mt-90

 

GM SAE 75W-85 GL/4 or bust.

 

Actually thats not too crazy, you have gears wearing on each other made of magnetic iron. What you don't see is the brass that is being eaten by the GL/5 since brass is non-magnetic it won't show up on that plug

 

That's what I'm running now. So far I really like it.

 

I was assumed some of that was the brass, that's makes it even scarier.

 

It's honestly normal if the shavings are fine, if you have large pieces (1/8" or 3mm) then be concerned. If you look at how the gears are designed you'll see there will be some metal wear due to the surface interaction. I think Blackstone does a transmission oil analysis which should tell you Cu and Zn (for those that don't know those elements make the brass alloy) which would be the best indication.

 

It's the copper from analysis. Ecaulk posted a link in a thread I have and it says GL-5 comes up with twice the amount of copper(I believe it's copper) but pretty much the point is that GL-5 will wear out your synchros twice as fast.

 

I think it was your thread that finally got me moving to change back to GL-4.

I gotta say ZZP isn't lying, the Redline MT-90 makes a noticeable different.

 

i just dont understand why everyone feels the need to screw with transmission fluids. i was a transmission tech for 10 years, built manuals for about 7 years of that, and i saw so many problems from people running the wrong fluids. the engineers that design the transmissions are pretty dam smart, they engineer the transmission and the recommended fluid to work together.

imo, something that requires a specific fluid, like the f35 does, best to get the gm oil. something that specifies dex 3 atf, go nuts with whatever synthetic fluid that meets the requirements of dex 3. same goes with 80-90 gl4, go nuts.

 

You mean change them or switch to a different brand?

 

Agreed.

Problem with most on here is they feel if it is factory or stock, it isn't good....

No way in hell would I run anything other than the fluid I listed a few posts up.

 

That is common across the modified car scene.
Look at the tards that buy Eibach/ST sway bars and install them on their SS. Spend $450 to reduce your performance but tell everyone it is an upgrade because its aftermarket lol

 

true true

 

Also if you read the bottle of the GM fluid it says its made in Germany, cant be the worst stuff in the world haha.

but seriously, once i changed my tranny fluid with the OEM stuff (dont know what was in it before i owned the car) the transmission felt SOOOOOOO much better, and for what like 30 bucks more than if i where to gamble on a random aftermarket fluid

 

I never could see a point in running anything else other than what is recommended. That's why I don't see why people use anything but mobil 1 in these cars too. Same with the trans

 

The shop that installed my LDK (and put new trans fluid in) were the ones who put the GL-5 in. They said they called a local GM dealer and that's what they said to use because they didn't have any of the stock fluid.

My local deals are very dumb. I called them and asked if they had the stock fluid in stock for my 08 Cobalt SS and the tech tried telling me my car only came in automatic.

 

if you were trying to get fluid you were likely talking to a parts guy, most of them dont know jack. dealerships arent the be all end all info source, they have all the info, most of the parts guys dont use it. they figure if the bottle says 75-85 it must just be gear oil, so put gl5 in, must be the same difference.

 

Sounds about right, unfortunately.

 

Just another example of someone working in a job they shouldn't be because they don't know what the hell they're doing

 

Another reason why shops dont touch my car lol.

The OEM LNF stuff is 19 bucks shipped per quart on amazon.

Cadi dealerships, for some reason, tend to have the LSJ part number in stock.