430 F1 Gear box oil.

Redline MT-90

 

I have a manual, but reportedly the trannies are the same. The numbers you need to be concerned about are '75W90'. Any fully synthetic fluid should be perfectly fine, especially if you're not going to put 30K miles on it.
As a comment, read that the 430 has the same Graziano tranny than Aston Martins, and they highly recommend Royal Purple 'Max Gear 75W90'. Redline is pretty good too, but in my experience deteriorates quickly. I'd put RP or Mobil-1. But if you put less than 10K miles every 2 years (the recommended interval), zero worries with ANY oil.

 

Use Royal Purple 75w90. We have had excellent results with it!!

 

Castrol TAF-X: Fully synthetic SAE 75W-90 multi-grade transaxle oil. Designed to help improve cold weather gear selection and keep transmission noise levels to a minimum at high operating temperatures.
Recommended where an API GL4 lubricant is specified

http://www.uleiauto.ro/phpeuri/oiluri/castrol/TAF-X.pdf

Some say that with Castrol the transmission shifts smoother and no grinding than Redline 75W-90 (Lotus community).

I personaly have no experience with this oil but I suppose this oil should be fine for a F430 when I compare their specs.

 

As I and many said, ANY full synthetic 75W90 gear oil will be fine, but some feel better than others due to the synchros liking their additives better. If you already have the Castrol, use it, but people who have used everything on this tranny on Vantages swear by RP, so I'll use it when it's time and find out if it's true . And make sure to change the eDiff fluid as well. Let us know if you feel a difference with Castrol. Might be a winner too. Good luck.

 

You're right Anders, gearbox and differential use the same transaxle oil.

F1 transmission system and electronic differential uses DONAX TX.

Stef

 

Anders, you'll need a SD3 to bleed the F1 hydraulic system :

F1 Gearbox procedure (not for manual gear) :

1- Connect the SD-3 system to the diagnosis plug-in.
2- Choose "Diagnosis" from the main menu.
3- Choose "CLUTCH DRAINING" from the "DIAGNOSIS" menu.
4- Add oil into the tank to prevent the oil level from running low.
5- Press "ENTER" to activate the tester.
6- Open the clutch draining union and wait 3÷4 seconds to let the oil flow out.
7- Close the draining union once again.
8- Top up the oil level in the tank.
9- Repeat procedures 6-7-8 two or three times, on both draining unions.
10- Once this operation is complete, lock the unions to a torque of 18 Nm (Class A).
11- Wait for the tester to exit the draining procedure and to display the related positive result.
12- Shift gears a couple of times and top-up the level.

In the system, as well as the union (Pic 1) on the gearbox, there is also a second union (Pic 2) on the block for the clutch pipe rapid coupling, located in position with the right-hand rear fastening point of the gearbox support frame.


Without an SD3, I wouldn't attempt to bleed it manually. BTW, in the maintenance schedule, I haven't seen any topic where the hydraulic oil must be changed at regular intervals but I may be wrong.
Stef
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An SD3 is almost impossible to get (no more produced by Digitek) and even if you can get one, it's gonna cost you >15.000$ !!! But wait a bit, my friend Duram(etric) is going to launch a new diagnostic tool for the 360 and 430 this year at a very reasonnable price of +/- 2.000$ (TBC). He has a very good reputation in the Porsche and BMW/Mini communities (see websites durametric and bavariantechnic). I've been brainstorming and collaborating on this Ferrari diagnostic tool project with Duram since several years and now, they're getting close to the product launch. The hardware interface is ready, the software is still under development (entire rewriting of the code).

 

Does the manual tranny also use the same fluid as the ediff??? Remember the person who said TWO different oils was a Ferrari tech, so thought he was right. Or maybe the manual and F1 are different in that regard as well?

At least he was right that's 2 different reservoirs, correct? Now just need to know if a manual car has the same fluid or 2 different ones. Thanks for setting the record straight. And by the way, the trannies are NOT the same then (maybe very similar, but not the same), or they'd use the same fluid. Take care.

 

JC, there is no difference between the F1 and manual gear, they use both the same gearbox and thus the same 75W90 transaxle oil :

From the WSM:
"The lubrication of the gearbox gearing, which is the same as for the differential's, is carried out by a volumetric pump with concentric gears, operated by the auxiliary mechanism of the reverse gear. The temperature of the gearbox oil/differential is regulated by an oil/water heat exchanger, located on the engine crankcase, between the banks ".

The oil filler plug can be found on the left-hand side of the gearbox housing.


Although, the hydraulic system used by the F1 and the E-Diff (including manual gear) uses DONAX TX hydraulic oil. The hydraulic steering system uses also DONAX TX oil.

Last but not least, and only for the manual gear, the brake fluid tank is shared with the clutch system : DONAX UB BRAKE FLUID DOT4.

I hope I clarified things a bit more

Cheers,
Stef

 

Definitely. I was confused by this reply from another technically savvy member:

'JC- No, they are not the same fluid. Reread my note. The transaxle takes synthetic 75W-90 transmission oil and the E-Diff takes synthetic automatic transmission fluid. Dexron VI is backward compatible with Dexron II and III, so it should work fine in the E-Diff. I do not have an F430 warranty and maintenance schedule book, so do not know the change interval on the E-Diff fluid, but it is probably not too frequent. I do not know where the drain is. On F1 systems, the fluid is frequently removed from the top and then just refilled.

Taz'

But now it's clear to me we have a TRANSAXLE (gearbox and diff sharing same fluid) indeed. And the 'ediff' different fluid is just for the ACTUATOR, not the differential itself. Thanks man.

 

I'm a new owner and wondering if transmission noise on low rpm second gear (especially when turning onto corner) is normal? and can it be reduced or eliminated by switching to redline oil? The car is an 05 f430 with 3800 miles. TIA for any info.

 

Still getting to know the car. I drive it again this afternoon. Now i got it... the car is not happy on low rpm's and it will let you know by slightly knocking 2-3 times, but still runs smooth. The Lambo does this too, it knocks 3x, followed by vigorous jerk multilple times.
Also when I followed the advise from one thread here to not down shift from 2nd to 1st and let ecu do it for you, however, there's more chance the drive line will produce more knocking sound. If it is left in 2nd on low rpm, then suddenly you have to apply throttle.
So this afternoon when I was approaching corner from 4,3,2,and yes, down shift to 1. each downshift gives off a nice blip sound. I stayed in 1st gear for 2 sec while turning then shift back to 2nd and off I go. the gremlins are happy inside the gear box and did'nt knock at all.

 

As I have to do my 50.000km service soon, I've been looking around for alternatives to the Shell 75W90 Transaxle oil. I found this white paper very interesting where several products have been truly tested out.

You can find this white paper here : http://www.synthetic-oil-tech.com/Gear%20Lube%20White%20Paper.pdf

Here are the conclusions of this test but I strongly invite you to go the entire white paper:

"As the testing indicates, AMSOIL Severe Gear ranked highest among all gear lubes tested. It was the only gear lube to score a 4 or better in all performance categories. The high ranking of AMSOIL Severe Gear clearly points to a well-balanced formulation capable of delivering effective, long-lasting lubrication protection to all differential components. Most notable is the superior performance of AMSOIL Severe Gear in the critical areas of extreme-pressure protection and viscosity and oxidation stability. Based on the performance testing, the slightly higher than average price of AMSOIL Severe Gear would be offset by the cost savings achieved through reduced maintenance, longer lasting differentials and extended lubricant life."

The following results must be read as follows :
"Each gear lubricant was assigned a score for each test result. The gear lube with the best test result was assigned a 1. The gear lube with the second best result was assigned a 2, and so on. Red scores did not meet either API GL-5 performance requirements or SAE J306 viscosity requirements. The results in all categories were added to produce an overall total for each gear lube. The gear lube with the lowest total demonstrated the best overall performance."

My point of view is that Mobil 1 Synthetic 75W90 has a very good performance/price adequation and should be an excellent alternative to the Shell Transaxle oil. It just a pity that the Shell oil was not part of the test.

Please share your thoughts
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Not part of the final results, I found the Filter Patch Results also very interesting. Some transmission oils initially thought to be good for our cars, like Redline or Royal Purpe, are far from being convincing in this test.
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you guys understand that that paper was written by Amsoil, right?

 

Not "by" but "for"

 

hahahah.... right my mistake


It is a good read though

Justin

 

A few of us up in the northwest are using liqui Moly gear oil..