I have an 04 rancher and my owners manual says to use SAE 80 oil in the front/rear differential, but honda only lists their "shaft drive oil" which i guess is 80w90. Does that mean it's ok to use 80w90? if i can, i'll probably use mobil 1 or valvoline and avoid the dealer markup for gear lube since i can buy it at wal mart. any input would be cool...

 

I have always used 80w 90 gear oil, I always buy synthetic. When my front limited slip started to get bad, I'd go to my GM dealer and buy the little bottle of friction modifier they use in all their trucks with limited slip rear ends, I put 1/2 of the little bottle in my formans front diff and it helped alot. (the rear diff on the forman just used straight synthetic gear oil becuase its a solid shaft, no differential.)

 

75W90 Mobil 1 Synthetic

 

Valvoline SynPower Gear Oil, full synthetic.

 

Use the Bel-Ray Gear saver sae 80w/90. It has the limited-silp additive in it.