Front diff lube - fluid or gearbox oil?

[Funkyjazzlover]

Long story very short, a Land Rover mechanic mate has potentially found the cause of a juddering while slowly manoeuvring the van, such as parking.

Van is a mk8 4x4 2.2 125ps with 150k miles and he thinks (again, long story short) it likely an oil change in the front diff could sort it out.

This is where things get interesting. Ford state that the Transmission Oil (75W FE 7U7J-M2C200-BA/CA/DA) has the reference WSS-M2C200-D2, whereas the Gear/Transmission Fluid (SAE 75W-90) is the more common GL-5 (screenshot of spec attached).

Ford do an OEM oil for both, but the WSS-M2C200-D2 appears to be purely an oil for a manual transmission whereas the GL-5 is used in rear axles and 4x4 transfer boxes.

I thought WSS-M2C200-D2 was likely the correct oil but seeing the designed use for the GL-5 has made me second guess, and I want to be sure I will be putting the correct oil back in the diff.

Does anyone know which is the correct oil to use? Thanks.

[metalworker0]

if it has brass , bronze or yellow metal in there ..you should not use GL-5

all the best.mark

[Airthies]

Seeing as the front drive of the AWD vans is a clutch arrangement I'd say the lighter weight oil would be better.

I'm surprised it doesn't use ATF for the front axle.



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[Airthies]

Ps. It may depend on which transfer box is being talked about...
The Ford ranger box I've got in my van uses ATF in the transfer box while the MT82 Gbox uses gear oil.

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[Funkyjazzlover]

Ps. It may depend on which transfer box is being talked about...
The Ford ranger box I've got in my van uses ATF in the transfer box while the MT82 Gbox uses gear oil.

To be frank it's the language being used by Ford generally that's confusing.

If 'front differential fluid' was listed on the spec it'd make life a lot easier.

[Funkyjazzlover]

if it has brass , bronze or yellow metal in there ..you should not use GL-5

all the best.mark

Cheers.

[metalworker0]

Ps. It may depend on which transfer box is being talked about...
The Ford ranger box I've got in my van uses ATF in the transfer box while the MT82 Gbox uses gear oil.

To be frank it's the language being used by Ford generally that's confusing.

If 'front differential fluid' was listed on the spec it'd make life a lot easier.

I'm not even sure the ford information sheet above is giving you miss-information

'cause it's telling you to put GL-5 in your gearbox using the words gear/transmission fluid

There has just been a post in the connect forum last week where a member here has buggered his gearbox with the GL-5

all the best.mark