Royal Purple stuff causing blown engines & tranny failur

[WRXtranceformed]

So I've heard nothing but good things about RP stuff until recently. Andrewtech apparently has seen some motor problems resulting from RP oil, and I just got a private message on the IS300 forums that I should instantly flush my auto tranny since I have RP stuff in it. Here's what the PM said:

Dude since you have a 2001 I am assuming you have a auto eshift. If you do please take this advise seriously:
Proceed to you garage; trans shop; dealership immediately and flush out the Royal Purple from your trans..... My service adviser has called me 3 times in the last year alone for completely failed IS300 auto trans that will NOT be covered by Lexus for using the Royal Purple. There is ONLY one readily available trans fluid for the Eshift, the Toyota type-IV fluid.

P:S: Manual trans are ok with that purple stuff.

His reason:
Burnt clutch packs/shift bands are the beginning. The trans will have a little hold up from time to time during shifts. It feels more like the car is holding power longer...no its cos the trans is slipping more. The royal purple is too slippery for the Eshift trans.

And dont forget, $100 now to flush out the trans, or up to $3000 later to replace it.

Have you guys heard of stuff like this??

[Evan]

strange, in the oil tests someone posted recently royal purple got rated the highest.... ?

cant speak for autos, Lee. Im not a woman so I drive a manual

[WRXtranceformed]

Exactly... and now I'm bugging out because I'm worried that my transmission is going to self-destruct because the fluid in it isn't OEM? That doesn't make sense to me.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Some oils have a certain chemical that will not work with some of the heat-treatment or chemical treatments in some transmissions and differentials. This is A LOT more common than most people think. It will coat the gears with a yellowey substance. This is why you have to be INSANELY careful about what oil you use in transmissions and differentials.

Also with automatics they are very touchy with tranny fluid, any aftermarket transmission fluid that just says auto tranny fluid for every type should be looked at with a very weary eye, yes there is universal auto tranny fluid, but only trannies that take this "universal" auto tranny fluid should use them.


I say stick with factory, especially if your car is stock. Why were you using the royal purple stuff anyway?

[WRXtranceformed]

I thought I'd give it a try, I'm using all RP fluids right now.

Well, it's been in the transmission for about 5k miles, hopefully it hasn't done any damage if it's really that bad for it =(

[Jeff]

Go back to the OEM stuff. It has friction modifiers that prevent what the PM said would happen. This is the same with Mopar transmissions and LSDs on trucks. For truck LSDs we actually have a separate bottle (only an ounce or so) that says "friction modifier: for use with Mopar synthetic differential fluid". I read a lot about this kind of thing when I was researching want oil to use in my manual transmission. I'm using regular dino 10w30 because M1 has caused failures.

[WRXtranceformed]

$286 later and the old stuff is flushed out and the OEM stuff is put in :x

That better have saved my transmission! You live and learn I guess.

[WRXtranceformed]

FWIW I switched back to mobile 1 synthetic engine oil this past oil change and immediately noticed a decrease in city fuel economy of about 2 mpg and highway of about 4+mpg.....

[Kaan]

yeah well if you talk to my subaru roommate... Moble1 will blow your shit up as well!

[D_Eclipse9916]

Mobil 1 is known for its thinner than rated viscosity, which would seem odd that you lost mpg. Royal Purple motor oil and tranny oil (MADE FOR YOUR CAR!!!!) is far superior the mobil 1 stuff. There are discussions about mobil 1 switching to a lesser grade base oil on pretty much every forum you can find.

[WRXtranceformed]

Well I'm definitely making the switch back to RP =)

[white_2kgt]

Anything other than Ford fluid in a Ford auto trans is a BIG nono. WAY to many people have had problems running aftermarket shit in them to keep me from even trying (all cars and trucks). Get the ford stuff w/ the proper friction modifiers and leave it alone.

On a side note a buddy of mine that drag races a 01 cobra engine stopped using RP b/c he was only getting 4-5 passes between rebuilds. He switched back to M1 and now gets over 25. I saw the scored pistons and blocks from when he ran RP. I won't touch the stuff.