The Fluid Thread
 

Hey guys,

Did some searching and reading on ww.fd3s.net. The motor is going back into my car next week and all of the fluids need replacing. I have a dealer who is local to me who can provide me with Redline, Motul and ELF lubricants/fluids at crazy prices.

Coolant-
First things first I need to replace my coolant. I have installed a Fluidyne Rad. I remeber reading that I cannot put a certain type of coolant into the system but I cannot remember the name. If anyone could help me out with that it would be appreciated. All the coolants I am seeing are "Monoethelyne Glycol" does that cause a problem?

I considered going the Evans route but I think in the end it comes down to funds. To fill my system with Evans 8+liters I beleive would be around 200$.

Do you guys recommend any coolant in particular or are you just going with a mix of water and Prestone?

Transmission Fluid-
From what I have read NEO Synthetic is basically the premiere maker of transmission fluid. I was hoping to get my hands on their 75w90HD but seeing as I will need the fluid this week I don't think it is going to happen.

Instead, I am supposed to be getting some Redline 75w90 for around 8$ a litre.

What would you guys recommend for transmission fluid?

Brake Fluid-
I see that the brake fluid market seems to be pretty hectic out there. AP, Castrol, Motul, there seems to be so many manufacturers.

From what I have read I should stay away from DOT 5 fluids and I have a choice between DOT3 and 4. Right now I am not intensely tracking the car although I am known to step on the brake pedal often and hard. What would you guys recommend as a braking fluid? Personally, I am split between the Motul R600, ELF Frelub 650or450.

Lastly, Power Steering Fluid
The type closest to me is of the Castrol brand. Does anyone have any input on better or worse power steering fluids?

I thank anyone/everyone in advance for their input,

Alex

**If anyone can tell me the quantities of required fluid it would be appreciated. I beleive rad is 8L and tranny is 3.6L.... Thanks, Alex**

For coolant, I run the 50/50 Prestone mix for street driving. Green coolant is fine, the orange coolant is the stuff you want to stay away from.

P/S fluid, I doubt there are any differences between all the brand neames out there.

Capacities, I want to say the cooling system is around 2 gallons, while the transmission is something like 2.6L.

I use any brand of green stuff, but I make sure the ingredient list doesn't include anything with silica in the name. I don't think Mazda's care, but on some imports the silicates in some coolants are destructive to the system. I just buy silicate-free coolant.

IMHO, the gear oil comparisons are overrated. Yes, the synthetics tend to be better than dino gear oil. I personally prefer Redline MT-90 - it works just as well as the others, with no chance of damaging any yellow metals (synchros) in the gearbox. As long as you go with a good quality synthetic in 75w-90, I think you'll be fine.

Yes, absolutely avoid DOT5 - it's chemically incompatible. Any brake fluid in DOT 3 or 4 with high wet and dry boiling point will work well. So the Motul will work. Dunno about the ELF.

IMHO, for any car that isn't tracked, overkill without budget kill would be an annual bleed using a parts-store DOT4 fluid. This won't cost more than $10/year. IMHO, most of the benefit is from the regular bleed, and the extra temp range of a fancy brake fluid isn't needed by any street drivers.

The power steering system is not under a lot of stress on this car. Any ps fluid that meets the Mazda specs will be fine.

Also do your differential. For this any GL-5 synthetic will work fine - I wouldn't use MT-90 in there.

You'll find the full fluid capacities in the FSM, which you can and should have downloaded to your computer.

Dave

From an Evans user, I'd suggest avoiding it for street driving. It is expensive and if you spring a leak somewhere, you can't find the stuff locally.

Some people have had good results with it on track. For me, I like the fact that I can run the coolant system at 0 pressure with no AST and still have a high boiling point. My car will be seeing a fair amount of track time though (hopefully).

Lets not turn this into an pro/con Evans thread. There are already a few good ones so use them for reference.

Use distilled water with the above. Hard or softened water can corrode the cooling system.

Dave

Thanks everyone for the input.

The ELF coolant that I was looking at is actually Light Blue. So according to what Dave said about www.elflubricants.ca I would want to use the Classis formula as it contains no silicates. And I will make sure to buy some distilled water from the local grocer:)

Question about the transmission fluid, following what Dave said. I have seen that there is a Dino-Juice vs Synthetic debate on tranny diff fluid but that the overall saying is that use Dino juice on the tranny and synthetic on the diff what would you guys say about this?

Thanks,

Alex

Your local Mazda dealer sells a 5 year, long-life coolant that I'm very happy with, although I wouldn't wait 5 years to change it again. As someone else said, mix the coolant with distilled or demineralized water. It should be available in the water section of your local supermarket.

At one time, synthetics required an additional friction modifier to be used in the tranny (which people didn't do and ended up having problems). However most modern synthetics can be used in both locations.

I don't think the overall opinion is for dino in the tranny. The recommendations I've heard are overwhelmingly in favor of the synthetic. If you want to be extra safe about it, use a GL-4. Redline MT-90 is a GL-4. Some of the GL-5s are so 'slick' that the synchros don't function well.

Dave

At the risk of breaking the above rule, I just want to say that if the car is going to be a weekend fun car and not a daily driver, it might be good to consider evans for the anti-electrolysis properties. I mention this often in posts because I had the bad experience of having electrolysis of my coolant actually eat through a metal coolant pipe located under the turbos. The turbos had to be removed and it was very expensive to fix. When you buy evans they give you a little top-off container to store in the vehicle. I can give you a million other reasons to use it but as has already been mentioned, there are numerous threads debating the pros and cons so just do a search if you are interested. One of the best upgrades and cheapest really was switching to this miracle fluid!

Don't forget the 4oz of Synthetic TCW3
 

I think it is also wise to add 4 oz of any TCW3 2-stroke oil to each tank of gas.

I looked over the Evans once again.

I am just wondering about that last little bit of coolant that is in the engine that I cannot get out. I mean I took out the engine rad everything hoses, but I don't know really how I would make it so there is no water what so-ever in my system.

I was wrong on the price of Evans for me it would be more like 70$ instead of 200$

Evans
 

Good point but there is an easy fix for doing the conversion. I did it myself and I'm not much of a mechanic.

Just buy some Sierra coolant from your local auto parts stores (bout $12/gal). Call around, i got mine at Kragen. Anyway, it is compatible with evans so what you do is drain as much water out as you can and then refill with Sierra. Run the engine well and take it for a short drive and then come back and purge all the Sierra out. Now you are ready to re-fill with straight Evans. Works like a charm. This stuff is great. It is a really poor conductor of electricity but a great conductor of heat. Anything with water in it is a "good" conductor and thus leaves you vulnerable to the electrolysis thing. Just buy an extra container so you have it around and as mentioned before, Evans sends you an extra top-off container to keep in your car. Basically this stuff never (or rarely) needs to be changed so unless you spring a leak (which is what this stuff helps prevent) you won't have to buy any more of this expensive stuff for a long time. Cheap insurance and cuts down on maintenance. Since I switched to it last summer, I have not had any overflow into the overflow reservoir. I've heard that is because unlike conventional coolant this stuff contract with heat instead of expanding.

Just to update.

I am happy I did not put Evans in. I got a coolant leak which I don't know where it is comming from but it is there. So if I would have put in Evans I would have lost alot of money.

I ended up putting Redline MT-90 in the tranny and almost 3L went in..... Shifts have been getting progressively smoother although I have been having alot of difficulty putting it into reverse.