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Smoother and more accurate shifts, Motul 300 Gear Lube is a low cost easy mod and worth it:)

neeqness

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Personal best, big turbo, wife driving the car following the RV from SoCal to AZ, 41.5 MPG

With the EFR we took a few tours in the Carson City, Reno, Virginia City, Tahoe, etc area with both of use and two 95 lb dogs and hit in the 38-39 MPG range.

I modified my shifter linkage and lever if 4 different places, very short, very solid, very fast, any gear any time as fast as I want to shift but always warmed up first, never misses a gear or hard to do but not limpy soft either which is not good, need to feel what is going on.
That's better than anything I've ever done. About how fast were you guys going on average?

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RAAMaudio

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Thread Starter #122
CA to AZ 55-65 speed limits so I was going my typical 59-64 and my wife had not need to dip into the power but the AP did show a bit of use with 11PSI at one point. No major mountain passes but some more windy and ups and downs, not out in the middle of flat land US.

NV trips were very mellow, speed limit or a bit above, Tahoe is restricted but still climbing up from Carson, some traffic, ups and downs on the route, nearly 40 MPG at high altitudes, not bad at all:)
 


neeqness

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CA to AZ 55-65 speed limits so I was going my typical 59-64 and my wife had not need to dip into the power but the AP did show a bit of use with 11PSI at one point. No major mountain passes but some more windy and ups and downs, not out in the middle of flat land US.

NV trips were very mellow, speed limit or a bit above, Tahoe is restricted but still climbing up from Carson, some traffic, ups and downs on the route, nearly 40 MPG at high altitudes, not bad at all:)
I think the best I've gotten was 34ish. Usually though I averaged 30 during my trip but the speed limits were closer to 75. ;-)

Haven't tried the dctf on a trip yet though and I suspect it will do better with that alone.

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I have a few thousand miles on the motul dctf. At first I thought it was better... But it really is not any different than stock fluid. It meets the same specs, so doubtful it's too different.

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neeqness

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I have a few thousand miles on the motul dctf. At first I thought it was better... But it really is not any different than stock fluid. It meets the same specs, so doubtful it's too different.

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Agreed...the more I drive it, the less I like it. Probably put an order in for the 300 tonight or tomorrow...

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Rhinopolis

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Personal best, big turbo, wife driving the car following the RV from SoCal to AZ, 41.5 MPG

With the EFR we took a few tours in the Carson City, Reno, Virginia City, Tahoe, etc area with both of use and two 95 lb dogs and hit in the 38-39 MPG range.

I modified my shifter linkage and lever if 4 different places, very short, very solid, very fast, any gear any time as fast as I want to shift but always warmed up first, never misses a gear or hard to do but not limpy soft either which is not good, need to feel what is going on.
Would you quickly break down what you did here, please?
 


Rhinopolis

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I have a few thousand miles on the motul dctf. At first I thought it was better... But it really is not any different than stock fluid. It meets the same specs, so doubtful it's too different.

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This is what I expect, nothing worse than stock and no real noticeable difference. Sort of like going from one brand of high quality synthetic motor oil that meets engine spec, and to another....
 


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RAAMaudio

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Thread Starter #130
Shifter mods in order done, total investment under $10 in materials.
1) Short Shift, shaped and welded part to arm on transmission, made from.
2) Cut, turned, welded cable mounts on bracket to align cable to ball where the now locate on the transmission arm.
3) Welded washers to bottom of bracket instead of using inserts.
4) Split shifter base and made parts to raise shifter 1.25"
5) Used coupling nuts, washers, nylon spacers, bolts, raised shifter another 1.25"

Note: I would skip 4 and just do 5 but with longer spacers and bolts, 1/10th the work, same result.
 


neeqness

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Why the more you drive it the less you like it?
The oem fluid when freshly replaced actually felt great but after driving it for the first 100 miles or so it soon returned to the same feel as the prior fluid.

The DCTF seems to be "settling" also into feeling like the stock fluid except it didn't feel as nice as stock when fresh. Just a bit more viscous without necessarily losing any grip while changing gears. Could explain the improved mileage so far and it's seemingly a better thing but I haven't driven 100 miles with it yet...and I don't really like this feel.

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neeqness

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CA to AZ 55-65 speed limits so I was going my typical 59-64 and my wife had not need to dip into the power but the AP did show a bit of use with 11PSI at one point. No major mountain passes but some more windy and ups and downs, not out in the middle of flat land US.

NV trips were very mellow, speed limit or a bit above, Tahoe is restricted but still climbing up from Carson, some traffic, ups and downs on the route, nearly 40 MPG at high altitudes, not bad at all:)
Was looking to buy the 300 and noticed that there are a lot of variations of it. I'm leaning towards the 75w-90 version but just want to make sure that it's the same one that you guys have had success with so far.

Which version are you guys using?

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Rhinopolis

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The oem fluid when freshly replaced actually felt great but after driving it for the first 100 miles or so it soon returned to the same feel as the prior fluid.

The DCTF seems to be "settling" also into feeling like the stock fluid except it didn't feel as nice as stock when fresh. Just a bit more viscous without necessarily losing any grip while changing gears. Could explain the improved mileage so far and it's seemingly a better thing but I haven't driven 100 miles with it yet...and I don't really like this feel.

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Thanks for the impressions, and I should receive and change mine out this coming Monday
 


Rhinopolis

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Which fluid will you be putting in?

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MOTUL Multi DCTF, same as what you are currently running. I don't expect much if any change in shift feel, and if an adverse change in the shift feel makes itself known then I will switch back to the OEM fluid.
 


dyn085

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MOTUL Multi DCTF, same as what you are currently running. I don't expect much if any change in shift feel, and if an adverse change in the shift feel makes itself known then I will switch back to the OEM fluid.
I would be interested to hear your opinions on the Motul DCTF. I'm about to roll up on 30k next month and I'll probably be going that route or OEM. Pretty much everywhere that I've seen our spec quoted on Bitog they have said not to use anything that doesn't meet the spec, and I value their experience in UOA's and legitimate lubrication information.
 


Rhinopolis

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I would be interested to hear your opinions on the Motul DCTF. I'm about to roll up on 30k next month and I'll probably be going that route or OEM. Pretty much everywhere that I've seen our spec quoted on Bitog they have said not to use anything that doesn't meet the spec, and I value their experience in UOA's and legitimate lubrication information.
I read up on this fluid in a few Nissan GT-R forums. It's been available to them and also the Evo 10 group for a few years now, and no adverse reviews in the threads that I read. Meets our FiST spec, and I will put it in and give my impressions after I put on a few hundred miles with the stuff.
 


neeqness

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MOTUL Multi DCTF, same as what you are currently running. I don't expect much if any change in shift feel, and if an adverse change in the shift feel makes itself known then I will switch back to the OEM fluid.
I do like it better than oem, gas mileage alone and slightly less noise is good enough, but I didn't like the oem feel overall and noise is still present too much for me for both. I suspect both will still cause more wear over the long term though (unless you are a pretty conservative driver with fuel economy as your highest priority) and I prefer a smoother thicker feel. Hope 300 will be what I'm looking for..

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neeqness

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I would be interested to hear your opinions on the Motul DCTF. I'm about to roll up on 30k next month and I'll probably be going that route or OEM. Pretty much everywhere that I've seen our spec quoted on Bitog they have said not to use anything that doesn't meet the spec, and I value their experience in UOA's and legitimate lubrication information.
I've been checking the bitog site also and I've noticed two camps on this with only a few saying to stay with spec and the others saying to go with the 300. Interestingly though, I didn't see anyone mention dctf, but the dctf has only recently been recommended to meet ford's spec for our cars. Previously the dctf was not recommended for our specs.

Typically I would agree to follow manufacturers specs which is partially why I chose the DCTF this first time out but now I think I will be kicking myself for it soon.

Sometimes the manufacturers objectives may not be what's best for the consumer but this is really a personal call. From what I've seen with the Motul 300, it would not be a bad choice or cause any harm and in fact the opposite as I believe it will protect your box better than stock or dctf. This I'd like to first reserve final judgement on though until I actually use it. Just make sure that if you decide to get 300, don't get the LS version because it is rated gl 5 and not gl 4.

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dyn085

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I've been checking biog site also and I've noticed only a few saying to stay with spec. Typically I would agree which is partially why I chose the DCTF this first time out but now I think I will be kicking myself for it soon.

Sometimes the manufacturers objectives may not be what's best for the consumer but this is really a personal call. From what I've seen with the Motul 300, it would not be a bad choice or cause any harm and in fact the opposite as I believe it will protect your box better than stock or dctf. Just make sure that if you get 300, don't get the LS version because it is rated gl 5 and not gl 4.

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Conversely, a lot of people tend to think that they know more than the engineers doing the designing. While I'm sure there are probably some instances where this is true, staying within a specification is pretty ingrained into me due to my experience in aviation. I have seen quite a few people swap away from the 300 due to shifting issues, much like people were swapping back from colder spark plugs once they started having issues with starting.

I would prefer the best 'feel' of lubricants meeting the specification, but I'm definitely not going to go outside of a specification simply based on subjective 'feel'. 90W gear oil will make an engine run smooth and quite, but not for long. A drastic but similar example.
 




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