Quintin,

THANKS for straightening me out. My original post to this board said that I wuz born and reared GM, maybe that is where I got used to calling it Positraction. I will use the term Lim Slip from now on.

My original point was that Quicky-Lubes will check your diff, see the white additive that I have been told is normal (by qualified mechanics) for both of the '97 F150's that I have owned, a '87 Bronco II, a '96 and a '98 Explorer, all w/ lim slip (all but one were AWD or 4WD), all had the whitish additive that the dealerships I use use.

Quicky-Lube "Techs" may or may not know the difference, and what is normal and what is not, and charge a lot of people extra buck$ to service diff when there was nothing wrong for it to need servicing in the first place. I have heard one tech who used to work at a place like that say they intentionally used that (normal white color) to check diff and upsell a rear end service, whether it was needed or not.

I don't like going to Dealerships and having to pay their prices (but at least they will (or SHOULD) stand behind their work), but I also don't like to take chances with my vehicles, and having them serviced by those who do not know what the heck they are doing...

 

I only wish that it were possible to make such a blanket statement and have it be true.

Around these parts, the two best mechanics work out of rather run down shops, the worst place you can go is the Ford dealer with their spanking clean new shop.

I'm not slamming all dealers/shops, I'm just saying that in todays world, you can get ripped off anywhere and a dealer is no less of a crapshoot than Joe's garage.

 

You won't "see" the additive in gear oil. You might smell it if it's fresh oil, but visably it leaves no trace. It can be either dark green or a light amber color when it's still in the bottle, but once it mixes with gear oil, all bets are off as to what color it should or shouldn't be. Fresh gear oil will be about the same color as engine oil, a darkish amber like color. Gear oil with some miles on it will be like a dull gray, but it's still fine.

 

Alot of people call it posi, it's not a big deal, everyone knows what your talking about. That was just so you know when you go to buy the lube that it is alright. (posi = trac-lock = limited slip) all the same beast.


Yea I don't understand the smell, I was told years ago that it was the whale oil. Now they claim to no longer use real whale oil, it is "supposedly" synthetic man made whale oil. Surely they could have made it to NOT smell like the real deal too!

 

I had a 02 F-150 went to Advantage Ford in calgary for a oil change, Left the truck for 45 min came back to pick it up. I was lucky my truck was backed up on a small incline, underneath the drian plug, fresh oil was leaking out of the truck...

So I grabed the service manager who inturn grabbed the tech who did the oil change, they booth tried to tell me this was left over oil from the oil change leaking off the cross menber under the engine...Too lazy to wipe off the old oil?

I grab my socket set and tighten up the drain plug and I checked the oil filter....coupule months back MR. Lube in Calgary changed the PCV and my GF mini van the tech broke off the thread on the manifold because he was lefting up the socket while turning the pcv..

On the 04 F-150 Universal in calgary dose all the maintance, thier ok ( I bought the oil changes in advance )

From now on, I'm doing all my maintance my self and the used oil, ect I will take to a recycling depot..

 

doing it yourself is the only way you can guarantee it will be done right.

it also give you a chance to inspect the rest of the vehicle.

 

X's 2

100 x's over

Only problem is that if something does go wrong, then you have nobody to blame...

 

The older ford 8.8 called for 100K miles services, the new ones call for 150K miles services. For the whole $20 or $30, just do it. I mean, chances are you'll only do it once for the entire time you own the vehicle