If you don't wheel much and can change the gear oil |removethispart|@ regular intervals I would put 75-90 synthetic in the trans, tcase and diffs It will work all year round

i wheel it whenever i can. just not as much in the winter (-20 to -30 degree weather and lots of snow...)

its a daily driver which gets some good highway miles thrown on it. (atleast one 9 hour to 12 hour trip back home every year...) probly a good 40-50,000km a year... (had it just over a year and its a good 25,000 plus km from when i got it (with 6 months of that sitting with no use...)

did notice that 80w90 is only soppose to be used down to -20 degrees... amazing how im having problems at -20 and lower...

I made up a slick, trick batch of T-case juice, you need 1 quart Mobil1 synthetic ATF,
1 quart Mobil1 Synthetic gear oil and 1 quart Lucas Synthetic oil additive, mix all
3 quarts, and put 2 in the t-case, you could use the other quart for a spare or put
it in the diff front or rear, your choice.

This combo makes for a slippery light oil that should improve your fuel mileage

Good Luck
Wild

Darin, you are always up to some homegrown solution, most of which work great, some that just plain blow up. I think your mix will work well. We will see next month on the trail. Oh'ya, check out the video of me owning Anthony's RZR in Arizona. I wish the vid would have transfered clearer, but hey, what can you expect from the enviro. P.S. at least we dont put Toyota parts on our Zuki's !lol.

oohhh crap, forgot to list the youtube site for the Sidekick Vs. RZR here it is =

dealer is still saying its something other then the fluid making it not shift properly in the cold... but what else would have changed from before the fluid change to after...
they are willing to do the fluid change for no labor if i supply the fluid. still doesnt make it proper (had to make SEVERAL trips to and from dealer to get it all sorted, rental car while work is being done.

so for 70 bucks (price of 75w90 synthetic gl-4 fluid here, 4L) its getting put in for free. (55 dollar labour charge waived) its getting THE PROPER fluid put in for the climate.

dealer stills says 80w90 is the right stuff. and they have had no complaints... i call bull...

going to call up zuki nation (here in town) to see what they recomend... if its 75w90 im going to try and get my money back on the fluid (dealer obviously installed wrong fluid if local ZUKI specialists say so)

what blows me away is how they should know 80w90 doesnt flow at -20 degrees... so why use it in a truck that runs in a climate of down to -45 degrees!!!! freakin local dealer should know that...

also never got a straight answer from them if the stuff they put in it first was gl-4 or gl-5.

Let me explain why I have researched this topic so much.  I wanted to change my Tracker over to synthetic gear oil because it was such a slow slug in the winter compared to warm weather. I assumed my gear oils were not synthetic so cold weather performance was suffering.  I was told synthetic GL5 was just fine for the transmission, transfer case and differentials. Following the bad advice, I changed everything over to synthetic GL5. Immediately the Tracker began shifting horribly with grinding in all gears.  So I began to research this subject. When I learned that the synchronizers would be damaged by the GL5 I quickly change the the transmission and transfer case to synthetic GL4. The transmission immediately began shift great again.  So now I have a great shifting Tracker the runs like it was summer time even though it has been a bitter cold winter.  Now I have not had -20 degree temps so I can't say what it will be like when its that cold but we were in single digit  temps and I was very happy with the synthetic GL4 in the trans and transfer case as well as the GL5 in the diffs.

mike5721947,
Do you think the difference between 75w90 and 80w90 is going to be that great? And, $70 seems a bit steep for 4L of fluid.

mike5721947,
Do you think the difference between 75w90 and 80w90 is going to be that great? And, $70 seems a bit steep for 4L of fluid.

I don't think that would be a great difference between those especially in not extreme cold areas.  I am obviously a great believer in the GL4.  It is what is listed in the owners manual and the factory service manual. I am sure Suzuki listed it for a very good reason.  I think I paid $12 a quart for Amsoil GL4 at our local hardware store. It is amazing how hard it is to track down synthetic GL4.  Some people have found it at their local quick lube shops. 

16 and some change a bottle... really the price didnt bother me... im use to getting syncromesh straight from gm for my last car, and it had tranny jobs every 2-3 months!
so once in a year isnt that bad.

I'm pretty sure gear oil's change interval is longer than 12 months. Even more so with synthetic. Which... is the point of paying the extra $$$ for synthetic.

manual says 24000km or 12 months...

i do more then 24000km a year unfortunitly... so im probly going to be doing it every year.

with 309,000km im trying to be a bit nicer to my kick... shes gone a good run and is still going strong.

I was looking at the Synthetic I picked up to put in the diffs.  500,000 mile service life in light duty applications. 

so... suzuki dealer is off my list of places to ever go again...

i brought them 4L of fluid (enough to do both trans and transfer case) they only did the transmission fluid change cause it was all i was complaining about...

so i drove the truck 5 minutes down the road to the chevy dealer to get the transfer case fluid changed (didnt feel like waiting another 2 days at the suzuki dealer...) so an hour later and a whole 27 bucks from my pocket i was off with the proper fluids in the truck.

Maybe I'm a cheap bastard, but I woulda just done it myself. The pump's $10, and it's only pulling out 2 bolts (one to drain, one to fill) to do the whole job.

cant do anything at the house (condo board crap) and really, 100 bucks to get it done by someone else... also... its -20 outside... i dont feel like getting under my truck with the snow and high winds.