Cheese and Onion

Written from New Zealand.

So I buy an '05 S with 22k and I want to change the diff and tranny oil straight away. I go to my Honda dealer and ask for MTF2 and get a blank look, he's never heard of it. We both end up on his computer using my part numbers and after 20 mins he goes and gets me MTF but it's the old blue bottle stuff with '06' written on it. "That's all we can get", I take it, order washers and he can't find those either so I find them on his parts page.

I ask about diff oil and he's done for, can't find it anywhere. He tells me that the diff oil only needs changing every 75,000 miles or 6 years anyway!!!!! I ask for diff washers and he can't find them listed, he calls up Honda New Zealand and they say they've never had to order a diff washer so there are none in the country and there never have been (since 1999!!!), they'll be sent from Japan and it'll take 10 days, so I order them.

So I pay for the oil (I'll quote all figures in US dollars to save you converting) $50 for 2 litres of old MTF, $6 for two tranny washers.

I find out (on here, thankyou guys) that I can use Red Line, Mobil, LE and (maybe) Honda Marine oil in the diff.

I end up going to 6 major autoparts stores for the Mobil because it seems the easiest to get (I'm about to learn about that!) and seems to be pretty good oil. No joy, none of them have even heard of it. I telephone two technicians from Mobil and they quote me two different oils (one of them an 80W/140???), I ask where I can buy the 75W90 and I get two further phone numbers to try, I phone them, one offers me an 18 quart pail (remember I only need about 700ml) and says "that's the smallest we do". The other company has never heard of it.

I end up, in despair, on Ebay (or our equivelant) and find a rusty 65 gallon barrel of the Mobil 75W/90 up for $200 (you couldn't................could you?) I didn't.

I eventually track down Lubrication Engineers (yes we them over here, it took two days to get to them) and they're wonderful, knowledgable and friendly, they go through the specs and say "Yes we've got that oil, it comes in 5 quart pails and it's $250" (remember that's US dollars, $50 per quart!!!!). I ask if they'll do one or two quarts and they politely decline.

So, I read SpitfireS's posts about Honda's 75W Marine oil and I decide that it might be my best bet (not really knowing if it's OK, despite it matching Honda's spec requirements). I telephone 7 marine outlets and none have it until BINGO, one place says "Hold on I'll have a look in the basement", he comes back and says "I've got one quart, I think it's the right stuff, do you want it"
I haven't asked the price, I was too scared to, I'm off to look at it tomorrow.

That's 9 days, 20 telephone calls, nearly 200 miles of travelling and more "No, we don't have it" answers than I can remember. As I sit here tonight I still don't have oil or washers for my diff.

I've learnt a lot though, nearly all of it from the good people on here.

The next time you get pissed at Ricks or Hardtop guy for charging you 1 or 2 bucks more than you thought they should or they take a couple of extra days to deliver just remember there's always someone who's looking harder or paying more.....

Thanks to everyone that offers helpful advice on here, without you I'd be using 'Draino' in my diff and Castrol in my coffee...............

All the best,
Paul in New Zealand.

SpitfireS

The Honda Marine oil is (or should be!) SAE 90 GL-5.
This is a scan from my German owners manual (car was imported from Germany)


Its an exact match.

Also, read here:
Write down the part#
https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showt...099&hl=diff+oil

INDYMAC

If you PM your address to me, I will mail you a couple of quarts of LE 1605 at whatever the cost is for me. That should last you a couple of years. Don't worry about the diff plug washers. I don't think I've ever replaced them after several changes.

JackS

For the prices quoted , wouldn't it be cost effective to order from the U.S.?

Cheese and Onion

JackS:
For the prices I've quoted it would be more cost effective to ship it from an unknown universe.

Indymac:
I may well take you up on this kind offer. I need to find out if oil ships internationally without difficulty first.

SpitfireS:
Thanks again for all the info, insightful post, very thorough. After reading your link and Road Rages 20 page tribologist epics I saw that you would be changing to LE 1605 and that's what I really want too.

SpitfireS

Cheese and Onion Posted on May 19 2009, 09:48 PM
Last year I bought some Amsoil gear oil from an Amsoil dealer in the US (found him via BITOG).
USPS just didn't accept it: "its petroleum fluid and we don't ship that by air"
IIRC UPS refused it twice because it didn't have the proper flashpoint rating or something, they finally did ship it at a much higher cost.

Besides: 90 NZD converts to 40 Euro's.
Still not cheap but it sounds a lot better/acceptable.

Amsoil.. can you get that locally?
Good stuff.
Amsoil Severe Gear (IIRC) in 75W-110 (no doubt about that ) is what you want for the S2000 diff.

zack_280

I think you should import and sell some of this stuff. It sounds like there is a major shortage in New Zealand. You could get rich.

starchland

have you looked into honda motorcycle 70w/90 I believe it is hypoid oil. it is correct for our diffs.

fourless

You're right. This guy paid $46,000 to change the oil in his Lambo!
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/07/31/owner-s...for-oil-change/

moogleii

holy crap that's expensive