Redline Vs. Neo Tranny Fluid (my experience)
 

I’ve heard a lot about tranny fluids on this forum and just wanted to share my experiences with my fellow 7 owners. There's alot of debate on who's product is better.

I just changed my transmission fluid from Redline’s MT90 to Neo’s 75W90 HD gear oil and all I can tell you is WOW!!! Neo makes a world of a difference in smoothness and totally eliminated notchieness in 2nd gear (especially when cold).

I’ve heard a lot of good things about Redline, Neo, and Royal Purple in the forums but Neo has won me over by far. I was so annoyed by my 2nd gear grindage that I almost rebuilt my tranny because of it. I initially bought Redline because of its good ratings on this forum and the availability of the product at my local autoparts store. I realized that when I changed over to Redline’s MT90, the notchieness increased even more over the stock Mazda fluid. I stayed with Redline for about two months before making the change to Neo.

My FD has 70k miles and now feels like butter at all temperatures and through all gears, even when shifting to 1st while rolling. Silky smooth is all I can say!!!

So this is the low down… straight from my own experience with both products. Neo is the winner!

Btw: I called Neo direct and inquired about their products. A lady answered the phone and didn’t seem to know the technicalities and applications of the product to my standards. However, she put me on hold and talked with a technician and then advised me that their 75W90 HD would be the right choice. I ordered right over the phone from Neo direct, but the lady did mention that www.bakerprecision.com is one of their sites and their product can be purchased over the web at their site. I bought a gallon of their good stuff for about $40 and am totally satisfied.

It's good to hear some back-to-back reports like this, especially considering your Redline was also fresh before the switch.

You probably talked to someone from Baker. :) They seem to share an office (Baker and Neo) and are right down the street from Mazdatrix, and right next to Jun.

-Max

I ran Neo 75w90RHD in my Subaru (which had a pretty weak synchro design, not very smooth) and it made a nice difference vs. Redline MTL 90.

Did you ask them about the RHD fluid compared to the HD? If it's not a significant benefit over HD, that'll be really nice. For $40, I think I'm going to get some Neo-Synthetic for the RX-7 pretty soon...

-s-

I haven't used Redline but I've used Neo for quite sometime in the tranny and diff. It's an excellent product. My transmission feels wonderful and I could detect a difference in smoothness in the diff as well. I especially like how even when it's very cold (not too often here in Texas) the transmission is still smooth rather than feeling like the lube is curdled ;)

I'm changing the Neo soon for more of the same. I don't think it needs it yet but I'll change it anyway and see if I notice a difference between old and fresh. I'll report back on it.

I buy mine from Baker Precision.

I was looking for the Redline MTL but only one shop in my area carries it and they are FAR from here. Since the trans must go in this weekend I looked for an alternative.

GM Synchromesh is something many of the Mustang users have tried which was a good solution to their 1-2 crunch they suffer.... one of the guys I work with said that Synchromesh worked better in his Prelude over Redline but he said that he thinks its a car by car thing as to which fluid works best.

As soon as I get it and get it in the car I'll let everyone know my feelings on it.

~Kris

I also found same shifting improvement a few years ago, going from redline MT90-GL4 to NEO 75W90HD GL5. And the Neo's GL5 rating is for more severe gear load conditions ... ie track events.

Redline MTL is too thin for FD's, unless you just putt around.

I've read about people mixing half MT90 and half MTL and having awesome results. But, that's gonna be tricky, as you end up buying 2 quarts of each and basically wasting a quart of oil.

I've run Redline and Royal Purple in my FC gearboxes. Supposedly there's Redline in my tranny right now from the previous owner, and 2nd gear is a bitch when cold. I'll be giving Neo a whirl :).

Dale

The FD trans uses 4quarts total right?

~Kris

2.8 in the tranny and 1.2 in the diff IIRC.

A gallon is enough to let you do the tranny and the diff.

I'll never again use Redline in my transmission. Since I've switched to Neo, it's a lot smoother and I can shift in the cold!

I had back to back experience with redline and royal purple. Redline was crap, Royal Purple is great. I have said this before on other threads but there are still lots of people that say Redline is great. I say whatever:) I have heard Neo is one of the best too and I trust that it is. IMHO Redline is over rated and sells by name recognition alone.

Damn...now I want to buy some....
I'm running Mobile 1 synthetic 75w-90 and its just feels the same........ notchyness.

I've had great expereience with NEO as well, always smooth shifts at any temp. :)

Hey, how often do you guys change the transmission oil? 12-18 months...or is that too long?

How the hell did you come up with the $40.00 figure?? The list price is more than $ 68.00. Are you getting it whole sale or something??

http://www.bakerprecision.com/neogear.htm

Scroll down to 75-90HD.



Edit: BTW, has anybody used NEO in the differential? I currently use Redline.

Redline worked GREAT in the various FC gearboxes I ran it in. Either it just doesn't work well on the FD gearbox, or they've changed formulas over the years.

I wonder how Neo and Royal Purple compare? I can actually get Royal Purple locally, which is a plus.

Dale

Yeah.. scroll down to 75W-90HD. The picture for the item shows regular 75W-90 but it's actually the 75W90HD if you look at the drop down menu. This is the exact reason i called them. They said it's a picture of their old product and that it'll get updated soon.

For the 75W-90 RHD... I think it's more oriented to very harsh driving conditions like road racing. I dont race my car so i didn't inquire about that stuff.

Yep. I don't know what glop was in my car when I bought but I can say that after putting the NEO in I could actually feel the diff working more smoothly when under high power.

Which fluid to use in the diff.?

I may have to try the NEO oils. What differences were you able to notice regarding the differential performance?

OK, so far we've established this:

NEO>Redline
Royal Purple > Redline

I wonder how much of this is actually just the difference between old fluid and new fluid. Has anyone switched from old NEO (or R.Purple) to fresh Redline?


Has anyone tried both NEO and Royal Purple, preferably back-to-back?
-s-

I have been a Redline user for years. Sounds like neo is a better product. I will definitely try it when I change my tranny fluid.

Thanks for info:)

Just one of those little things about feeling what the car is really doing; most probably wouldn't notice. After swapping to NEO in the diff, when I was powering hard out of corners (at the track) I could feel the inside rear tire working more smoothly. The diff seemed more eager to let the axles work at differing speeds rather than begin to let the inside rear tire slip and then the rear step out. The diff literally seemed to work better as I could put more power down out of the corners. It wasn't a big difference, but something I certainly noticed.

Again I must say that I have no idea what was in my diff before changing to NEO. I could have had the worst stuff known to man in there before I changed it; I dunno.

Same as in the tranny. Buy a gallon of the 75W-90 and you'll have exactly enough to do the tranny and the diff.

Thanks, will pick some up. :)

Well when I bought my car it had "something" in it. It was ok. Then I put redline in and it was worse. A few months later I went to Royal Purple and I couldn't be happier. So my point is that both the redline and Royal Purple were new. I'm sure anybody would be happy with either Neo or RP.