Practically Classics Forum

Further reading into this brought me to Honest John http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/?t=59535 then onto the Morris Minor Owners Club Forum http://www.mmoc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=50917 when the subject was raised a year ago. I haven't drained the gearbox yet as after double checking the container it is a GL-4 product so I may be OK. I have contacted Comma and await their reply. The above however makes interesting if not confusing reading. It's a pity the manufacturers of these products don't put the statement "Classic Car Friendly" or "Not Classic Car Friendly" on the labels and avoid all this confusion. After all, with so many advances in lubricant technology it's hardly surprising that we are confused. Most of us just want to walk into the motor factors, buy product and walk out. Obtaining a degree in petro-chemical research prior to buying is a bit OTT.

Wow! Those oil companies are being too evasive for my taste, which consolidates the belief I started with; that any doubt is too much and that sticking to non-EP oils where they're in contact with yellow metals in transmission parts is surely a case of better safe than sorry.

Looking into this even further as I'm like a 'dog with a bone' now, these manufacturers produce suitable oils

Morris Lubricants http://www.morrislubricants.co.uk/scrip ... ategory=45 Golden Age Film AG90 is designed and suitable for gearboxes and diffs with yellow metal, Phospohor Bronze bearings and bushes.

Millers Oils http://www.millersoils.co.uk/automotive ... ox-oil.asp Green Gear Oil 90 is designed and suitable for gearboxes and transmissions with yellow metal, Phosphor Bronze bearings and bushes.

Castrol Oils http://www.castrol.com/en_gb/united-kin ... -oils.html Castrol ST90 is designed and suitable for gearboxes and transmissions with yellow metal, Phosphor Bronze bearings and bushes.

Penrite Oils http://www.penriteoil.com.au/products-c ... ubcateg=70 Castrol ST90 is designed and suitable for gearboxes and transmissions with yellow metal, Phosphor Bronze bearings and bushes.

Thanks all for your help people, the car already made a testdrive.

Good, Peter, out of curiosity what did you decide on regarding the oil?

Comma have kindly replied this afternoon although in my opinion they have confused the issue.

Good Afternoon,

Thank you for your enquiry.

If the vehicle manual states that an SAE90 oil then the customer has used the correct product.

With regard to yellow metals, as far as we are aware this has very rarely happened on very old cars and certainly is not something we have come across with any of our products. Although none of our products are formulated to be yellow metal friendly I would not expect there to be any issues. I'm not aware of any yellow metal friendly products on the market and so we are not aware of any lubricant formulations that are. If you find such a product we'd like to know about it! 

What a crock! That's Comma down in my estimation, coincidentally at exactly the same time work is inviting consumables supply tenders for the start of the Autumn term. That'll be Smith and Allan getting the business then..

(They're really good, not expensive and they know what they're talking about when it comes to the old tribology lark).

Oh well gearbox is going to be drained and this new oil put into it when it arrives http://www.morrislubricants.co.uk/scrip ... product=16

I've had nothing but good experiences with Morris products too, you'll be in safe hands there!

Oil arrived on Tuesday and the gearbox drained and nice new Phosphor Bronze friendly Morris AG 90 filled in it's place. Interestingly despite the 'old' oil only being in the gearbox for a couple of weeks and the car only doing around 60 miles it was filthy. Think I'll change the oil again soon just to be sure.