Proper gear oil

From that ECGS link: "ECGS RECOMMENDS LUCAS DINO 85W140"

Interesting that they don't discuss different weights for different trucks and applications. Correct me if I'm wrong but 85W140 is not for daily driving in a 1st gen Tacoma (like you pointed out)

 

So I’m a bit confused did I purchase the incorrect oil for my 02?

 

is the 80w140 a good idea to keep in the diff during the winter if you are in very cold climate areas

 

on paper it's not as ideal for daily driving. in practicality it doesn't seem to matter, I run 85W140 in all my trucks with no noticeable MPG loss

 

No issues with it being too thick (or whatever the proper term is) in winter?

 

No, it's fine.
We here on TW like to over complicate thing.
The fluid you bought is fine.

Being in Green Bay. I would have went with 80w-90.
But what you bought will just fine. Do NOT worry about it.

I'd recommend you replace the rear differential breather.
As 90% of the time, that's what causes the axle seal to leak.
The breather fails to vent air. When this happens, it "vents" through the axle seal.

The breather will look like this.

 

no noticeable loss in performance with the caveat that my truck is heavy and performance is already lacking.

I run the bulk container no name dino 85W140 from the farm store across all my vehicles. gears all run quiet and I do believe it provides better wear protection over 75W90. I do 2 year or 5k mi changes in my wheeling rigs and I see less wear material in the oil when I change it than when I ran 75W90.

my original post was based on the common rule of thumb but as always YMMV and I don't follow rule of thumb myself

 

Same. I run Lucas 85w140 in my Tundra and ran it in my GX460. Zero issues.

 

The only issues I have ever had with 140 is it leaking out the front differential breather.
And it only seems to happen when the temps out side hit 30' F or less. The fix is, let it leak. It will eventually stop.
If you do the traditional, Fill until it runs out the fill plug, it seems to want to "leak". Once the fluid gets low enough in the diff, it stops.
And when I say low, it's not that low. it's still within 1/2" or so of the fill plug.

NEVER seen it do this on a rear diff yet.
Must just be the location of the breather on the front axle in the Tacoma.

 

TnShooter…. Thanks for your input and the picture of the breather! Omg! I’m learning so much! I sure wish I discovered TacomaWorld before last week. I have several things going on with my truck and maybe I’ll list them when I get off of work lol.

 

Never had that issue and I've been running it for the last 4 years. Weird!

 

I knew going it to it, it could happen.
And it happened.

If yours doesn’t leak, it never will.
If it does, there’s no need in topping the fluid off. It will just push it up and out of the vent.

There’s been multiple people have the issue. But the link below is to my experience.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/front-diff-leaking-gear-oil-from-the-breather.744067/

 

The fact of the matter is LUCAS 85W-140 dino gear oil is what ECGS/Chase Perry recommends. Chase is very well educated on the subject of gear oil and his professional opinions have been earned. Further, using multi-weight 140 gear lube is not a new concept. We started using multi weight 90W-140 gear oil (all dino IIRC) back in the '60s/'70s to increase the durability of some marginally designed rear diffs. such as the Ford 8" axle in most early V8 Mustangs and the GM 10 bolt axle in some early V8 Camaros. The marginal ring and pinions started blowing once the HP number climbed up. We all eventually had to install larger, more durable rear axles such as the Ford 9" and the GM 12 bolt. But using the 90W-140 gear oil available at that time worked surprisingly well as a stop-gap measure. We got the idea from a Pro-Stock racer who endorsed using 90W-140 gear oil in most all diffs. Most of the Dodge muscle cars & 4WDs came with ultra-strong Dana 60 rear axles so they did not have to deal with this headache. But I also used 90W-140 in the Dana 60s as did that Pro-Stock racer. Even when I was running Amsoil in this '97 V6 Taco 4x4, I was using Amsoil 75W-140 in both diffs. and the Tcase. But the rebuilt R150F tranny does get the lighter weight Lucas dino gear oil. And it has been the same for every single 4WD I worked on/owned since the '70s: M38/M38A1 military Jeeps/one straight 6 and several hopped-up V8 CJ5s/V8 Box Broncos/super-high HP small & big block K5 Blazer 4x4s/Chevy 4x4s/Dodge 4x4s/and finally the 1st Gen Tacos which I rate at the top of the heap for durability in a 4WD. Bottom line for me: I trusted ECGS to build my front diff. so I will definitely follow their written instructions on which type gear oil to use. IMO, it would be very foolish to do otherwise. ECGS wants to be sure you get their word on gear oil, so they attach a tag to the diff. spelling it out (below). ECGS/Chase also has a very poor opinion on most synthetic gear oils as evidenced on the same tag. My experience with several synthetic gear oils mirrors his. If you want to argue gear oils, call Chase up. But you had better be packing a PhD in something technical because Chase lives and breathes diffs., and Lucas 85W-140 dino gear oil. .02

 

This! Every time I go into autozone I grab every quart of Lucas 85w140 they have to stock up. Wife thinks I have an addiction

 

is 8$ for a quart of that a good deal or not a good deal?

 

Yes. It's about $10.00 a quart in the local store here.

 

That’s a good deal.

 

The convivence factor is key. No muss, no fuss with messy pumps. Changing is easy with the Valvoline pouch. I change mine at least once a year.

 

Hell yeah! I just received my first 3 quarts of Lucas oil 85w-140 from Amazon today and I paid $37.39 plus taxes but I was just excited to receive it fast. Apparently I could’ve saved some ging…

 

It was a deal to Not be had
The local AutoZone had 1qt in stock clearance at 8$
Stopped by on break and it was not on the shelf anymore!
Had the guy print me out a ticket with the autozone price and went down the road to the advance store to price match
They had 5 qts but could only come down from 13.50 to 10$ plus speed perks bucks and a 10c save at shell worth 2$