For the benefit of those local to Victoria, and to be fair to AutoSpiel, I thought
I should post an update on my failed trans story:

Yesterday AutoSpiel agreed that he would pull the trans and inspect for the
cause of the noise at no cost to me. If the cause was related to his
workmanship or parts, he would cover the entire labour bill to fix it, but I would
pay parts. If the cause was not related to his work (which I think is unlikely),
then I will foot the bill, or choose to abandon the trans at that point. Since he
has agreed to cover the cost of R&R to fix an oil leak, I can use this as a sort
of "credit" toward any costs that I may have to incur.

I think this is reasonable, but I am still disturbed by the time it took to get this
out of him, and his reluctance to even admit the possibility of him making a
mistake. Maybe mistakes are very rare - they probably are given his good
reputation. But his reluctance, and the fact that he still clings to his belief that
Redline MTL may be the cause really bothers me. I spent a lot of time
reading up on API GL codes last night, and have no doubt that MTL meets
the factory GL-4 80W spec to a tee. Russell at Autospiel seems hung up on
the fact that "Hypoid" is not stated on the Redline bottle, but this is irrelevant,
as the very basis of the GL-4 spec is that it is designed to meet the EP
requirements of Hypoid gears (so is GL-5).
What's more, by installing Pennzoil GL-5, he is not following factory
guidelines and subjecting his customers to increased syncro wear. Redline,
Mobil and Amsoil all make mention of this fact on their websites.

I'm amazed that he hasn't had complaints - I put Castrol GL-5 75W90 in last
night, and the trans now shifts very poorly compared to MTL, and it even
seems to sap some power from engine!

ps: Yes, I drained the MTL and found quite a lot of metal on the plug, some of
it flakes 1-2mm in length... :-(   I should know next week how bad it is.

Thanks to everyone who has responded, I appreciate it.

========================
Shawn Wright
Computer Systems Manager
Shawnigan Lake School
http://www.sls.bc.ca
swright@sls.bc.ca