Due to this damn car accident I had back in Feb 03. The car has been just sitting around my house and the body shop and hasn't been driven since. I'm wondering if I should just rechange all the fluids when I get the car back this weekend?

Here are my last recorded miles since the accident according to my maintanence log:

Oil change: 700ish miles (Valvoline 50SAE)
Rear end: 1776 miles (Royal Purple)
Tranny: 1776 miles (Redline)


I'm definetly going to change the oil and oil filter but would it be also better to change the rear end and tranny fluids as well?

-Dan

 

jsut start her up (if the engine and radiator is fine) and warm her up to operating temp (180 degrees just about) I doubt you need to change out your fluids as of just yet (although changing out oil is not that hard or expensive). After your done with the body work and such, then would be a good time to change all the fluids out.

good luck

 

Yeah, the motor and radiator is fine, although I had to replace the upper hoses, but everything else is in good working order. I change/flush/fill all fluids myself anyways so it's worth it to me that they're clean, since it's been out so long it'll probably make me feel better to drive again with fresh clean oil.....

-Dan

 

Rear end and diff are fine. The engine oil is probably good too, but some say that engine oil has a shelf life of 3 months or 3k miles, whichever comes first. Personally, I think OPEC has something to say about that, as I believe 3 months is a little to soon. I heard that dino oil can turn acidic (?) if it sits too long, but I'm skeptical of that too. Synthetic is probably another story however. Anyone else care to comment?

Regards,
Frank

 

Yeah I'm pretty fanatical when it comes to clean motor oil and such. I'll change the oil at every 1k miles no matter what and new oil filter at every 2k-3k miles, simply because I just like having the clean oil.

I have no clue about syn oil and also skeptical about using it since I practically grew up on the point not to use it under any circumstances.

-Dan

 

All oils, whether dino or synthetic, need additives to battle the effects of acidic by-products from combustion. An oil's ability to resist acid buildup has nothing to do with whether the oil is dino or synthetic; various brands of oils have differing levels of these additives, so there are some synthetics that are better, and some dino oils that are better. In that regard, at least.

 

Since there is no combustion in the diff or tranny, what does this mean? Longer life, less acidic?

 

I'll probably end up changing the rear end and tranny fluids just for the heck of it since it's been sitting there for 3 months untouched, it'll make me feel better.


-Dan

 

Oil doesn't degrade when it just sits there! For my buddy's Jeep Cherokee, the factory manual has a 30K mile interval on the diff fluid (which I think is way too often), and it never recommends changing the manual tranny fluid since it never really gets dirty or degrades.

Change your engine oil, but you have almost no miles on the diff or tranny. They should be good to go for another 5 years!