Switched to MT90 today
 

I replaced the factory fill with Redline MT90 today. Managed to break the fluid pump so I had to run out and pick up another. Need to come up with a better way to fill the transmission as laying under the car with the stupid pump is annoying.

Anyways, the shifts are much smoother on cold start now. It feels like the car has already warmed up.

Awesome!

Yeah me too. Did it about a week ago just before this most recent cold snap. Makes 1st and 2nd not a PITA to use early in the morning.

you know those cheap vacuum pump brake bleed kits? i use one hooked up in reverse with fishtank line to do my pumping works like a F'n charm. great for pumping stuff into the gas tank, siphoning out fluids, checking vacuum solenoids and doing a million other things except bleeding brakes.

also did you use regular mt-90 or the mt90L with the friction modifier?

The suction pump I bought from Autozone was a joke. It would just barely put a trickle in; I could never get it to work. What I finally ended up doing was taking a 1/2" rubber tubing and a turkey baster and just feeding it into the tube. It worked so much better and FASTER than the pump.

1slow370: I used regular MT90

phantom21: The first one I bought sucked. Couldn't get anything going, so I went to Advanced Auto and got one of those quart/gallon bottle pumps. It worked MUCH better but was pretty flimsy so I trashed it after I was done.

yeah I made the first one work, stupid pump took me 4 hours to fill up the transmission and differential. needless to say, i threw the damn thing away when I was finished.

and for the feel, I seem to get locked out of first gear more often from Neutral. I have to pump the clutch once to line up the syncro's or whatever it does to be able to get into 1st gear. this only happens in the cold.

I felt like maybe that happened to me, but I haven't driven the car enough to duplicate it.

I ended up using 2 parts MT90 and 1 part MTL since it's typically warmer here.

My brother's shop had what looked like a bicycle pump for doing tranny and diff fluids. The chamber was probably 8" or so in diameter and it actually had a bike pump on there to pressurize it. We opted instead for compressed air which sped the process along. Don't worry, we flushed the pump with Lexus Synthetic gear oil first to make sure it wasn't some mix.

Yeah, I'm going to be looking for a dedicated gear oil pump. I don't want to spend too much but I just don't want to deal with any of this cheapy AutoZone nonsense.

This is common, but more so in the cold. The reason is, with the clutch out, the input shaft to the transmission is spinning, when you clutch in the input shaft continues to spin for a second or two from residual momentum which gives you time to select a gear. When the fluid is cold the input shaft will stop spinning very quickly due to the highly viscous fluid quickly robbing the input shaft of its momentum. When the shaft is not spinning it is a crapshoot as to whether or not it will actually engage a gear.

sweet, i'm about to switch over also on my next oil change. had bought a whole case for my celica, but i think my new toy will enjoy it more ;)

ah gotcha, thanks for the explanation.

I thought of two possibilities before: either I did something wrong (i.e. not enough); or I was supposed to mix the MT90 w/ a less viscous fluid. Glad to see its neither!

Did some double-pumping this morning and it made 1st a breeze. Guess I'll have to make that a habit when I first start her on a cold morning.

Yeah, I usually have to double clutch 1st and 2nd for the first mile or 2 until things start to warm up. Need an electric blanket for my transmission :)