G'Day all, We've just received a Freightliner on site (of course there was no book for it) and I'm looking for information on lubricants information on a couple of compartments. As usual our local dealer is as much use as a one-legged man at an ass-kicking contest so I'm posting here. The transmission is a Allison. The plate is marked "10A06 TIDA" and "S/N 6510920135". According to a plate on the vehicle the oil for it is 34 litres (7.5 gallon) of "Trans Syn" which I take to mean a synthetic transmission oil, but what specification of oil..? The steering box requires 3.97 litres (1 gallon) of "DEX 3". Would that be Dexron 3 by any chance.
You are correct with the power steering but not sure on your trans I haven't dealt with many Allison's Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk
BP/Castrol Transynd is the trade name for the factory fill synthetic fluid used. Your fluid choice should meet TES-295 specs.
Thanks gents. I've got more info from here in 2 hours than my guys have managed to get out of the Freightliner dealer in the last month ....................
Nige, it sure is you that should be in titled to advice. You have certainly helped put plenty of folks. Have a great day.
AS far as i know theres only one real manufacturer of trans synd and thats castrol. Allison will extend your warranty by 50K if you service your late model auto with trans synd at the local dealer
TBH the truck is an Emergency Incident Response truck for our Environmental Dept so if everything goes as it should it ought never to move. if it does more than 20 miles a week I'd be suprised. On the basis of such low mileage how often ought we to be changing the transmission oil, once a year or even every 2 years maybe..?
have you checked out the Allison website? IIRC they have oil spec's and quite a bit of other info
Good one ....!! All the info is there including the recommended fluids to meet Allison TES 295 specification from all the major lubricant suppliers. We are contracted to both Mobil & Conoco and there is a synthetic Mobil product listed on the Allison web site. That's what I'll go for. It's also coming up with a recommendation based on usage of fluid changes every 4 years and filter changes every 3 years. I think we'll do them every 2 years just to be on the safe side.
If it is new enough and has Allison "prognostic" then it tells you when to change the transmission oil and how much oil life you have left up to that point. Keeps track of number of shifts, oil temperature, hours, etc. to calculate the abuse the oil has seen. 2 years on TES-295 seems a bit over-frequent because in my experience even a well-flogged 6 day a week local delivery truck will go more than 2 years according to the prognostic. TES-295 is expensive but its upside is that it lasts a very long time. I would leave it 3 if not 4 to 5 years if not run very much. Also most of them tell you when to change the filters too, and they are no fun so I would also leave them alone unless needed.
I would have the truck exercised weekly all fluids brought up to temp. fluid and filters every 4 years, with an analysis every year for cheep insurance. Trans synd is the prefered fluid from allison and is pretty much the only thing i will bother putting in them.