Trans fluid Nazis at the dealer

[cbkoontz]

So I went to get a washer to change the gear oil in my MT to M1 synthetic. I was told by the damn parts person to make sure I put something approved by subaru (in my owners manual) or my warranty will be voided.

Are you kidding me??

I hope they just meant the viscosity, etc and not that I cant change over to synthetic.

[Retro]

Put in a GL-5, 75w90 gear oil.. They were just covering their butts.

[SD_GR]

If they were rude about it, send a love letter expressing your admiration to the owner of the dealership, and cc SOA (who state they neither approve nor disapprove of any lubricant, but they do specifically require that any lubricant used meet their stated specs in the manual).

If you get the correct grade and viscosity, and keep a dated receipt to document the service was performed as required, you should be golden.

[tarbaj]

Geez the SUbaru warranty Gistapo is getting tired. They have the parts guy lecturing about warranties being voided! I took mine in for the Cruise Control recall and they marked on the estimate sheet "customer declined maintenance REQUIRED to maintain warranty" of course they then said oh it doesn't mean anything Subaru makes us do that.

Subaru is gonna piss off a lot of customers who may not return for future buys because of this crap. I for one am having second thoughts about buying a second Scooby in the future.

[zoinks]

It's funny how different dealers can be. They're usually either really cool or real pricks. The dealership that I get parts from actually recommended Redline oil.

[complexx]

You have to see the picture from their side of the table. Lately (last 6 months) all the dealers have been receiving bulletins about warranty claims with pictures of abused/mistreated/improperly maintained parts and have been told to strictly deny warranty to customers that show the same types of problems. If the dealers were to "warranty" these items against the better (or worse) judgement of SOA, they would be taking the hit completely by having to pay for these parts out of their own pockets and they surely will not do this.

For the dealers and your own best benefit (if the dealer is happy, in turn you will be), follow the guidelines in the owners manual until your warranty is up.

[Deception]

Originally posted by Retro
Put in a GL-5, 75w90 gear oil.. They were just covering their butts.

Yup, that's what it says in the owner's manual.

On a side note, is the OEM manual transmission fluid a synthetic?