Fluid Change Compatability

Good question. For our 348's (manual gearbox), someone posted a procedure which involved draining old oil, flushing the gearbox by refilling (not with new oil, but I forget what fluid was used), and then draining and refilling with new oil.

However, I'll bet lots of owners have just done a thorough job of warming up their gearboxes, allowing plenty of time to drain old oil, and put new oil in, without problems. If your rear wheels are off the ground, I think it may even help to turn them occasionally to help oil drain. However, on an F1 gearbox, I would be a lot more careful flushing and changing to different oil. Just my 2 cents on the matter.

Would be interested in hearing from any of our pros comment.

 

I'm sure the OEM Shell gearbox oil was synthetic like the Redline. Even if it wasn't there wouldn't be a problem.

I don't know what ingredients are in Glycoshell or Mercedes coolant so I can't help you there.

 

Shouldn't be a problem as long as you get as much as you can out.

 

The procedure to remove evey drop of coolant out of an engine is quite time consuming and labor intensive. I doubt that anyone has actually done it fully without removing the engine.

 

IMHO (I'm not a scientist, just many years of being a shadetree mechanic), there is no issue of compatibility with the gear oils. They may have different additives, but essentially all of the synthetic gear oils are compatible with one another. And the synthetics are compatible with non-synthetics and blended oils. I've changed over to Red Line in many cars and never had an issue. Just check, depending on the oil you are using, whether you need to add limited slip modifiers. Red Line hypoid gear oils have limited slip modifier added, so you don't want to add more. Their transmission oils, like the 75W90NS, don't have the hypoid modifiers. Make sure you get the right oil for your car and application.

Now, with coolant, you need to be careful. There are two basic types (my simplistic approach) -- the green stuff and the orange stuff. The green stuff (ethylene glycol) is ONLY compatible with other types of green stuff. The orange stuff (forget what the heck the active ingredient is and too lazy at the moment to Google it) is ONLY compatible with orange stuff. Brands don't really matter. If the car currently has orange coolant, replace it ONLY with orange coolant. Apparently, if you mix the two (green and orange) it creates some clumpy gunk (the actual technical term for it LOL) and causes real problems. And it is very difficult to switch from one to the other, as it is next to impossible to get all of the coolant out of the system. So whatever you have, green or orange, just stick with it.

By the way, with the coolants, I understand that almost all of them are made by a couple of manufacturers, and most of the difference is in the packaging. Or so I've been told.

 

I read that you can't tell anything by the color because the manufacturer can make it whatever the client wants it to be.

There are really 3 types of coolant --Organic Acid Technology (OAT--Dexcool), inorganic technology ( the oldest kind that had to be changed every year), and Hybrid OAT (HOAT-- Zerex G-05).

If you go to a car parts store you can look on the back of a G-05 bottle and it shows which cars took which kind in what years. You can also compare ingredients.

Maybe if you search on line or find a bottle of the Shell type you can find out what's in it.
Without that knowledge there is no way of knowing which type you should use.

I would not recommend using the Dexcool or "Dexcool approved" type unless you are SURE that's what in your car.

I see on the G-05 bottle it is manufacturer-approved for use in Mercedes, so that's probably what Mercedes sells in its own bottles and colored differently.