Winnipeg Transit’s large repair and maintenance team are focused on keeping its significant fleet on the road and running to its strict timetable to keep the city’s residents, commuters and tourists moving each day.

Historically, Winnipeg Transit used a competitor transmission fluid across its fleet and experienced only minor issues. But as new energy efficient transmissions were introduced to the fleet, with features such as torque converter lock up at lower speeds, Winnipeg Transit’s maintenance team began to have more problems.

As explained by Jason Lavoie, Winnipeg Transit were experiencing a grunting and growling sound from vehicles, caused by premature failure of the torque converter, which resulted in drivers feeling a delay in shifting gear and in some cases slipping out of gear completely. This would require an oil change, meaning equipment downtime and service calls on the road. Winnipeg Transit’s vehicles previously were running up to 10,000 hours before an oil change, but due to the issues experienced when using the more dynamic transmissions, this was reduced to 3,000 hours*. With more frequent oil changes comes more labour hours for Winnipeg Transit’s in-house maintenance team, more downtime and scheduling issues as well as more waste fluid, all things that significantly affect the bottom line.

Winnipeg Transit required a new automatic transmission fluid to stop the grunting and growling noises and keep its vehicles on the road.

*Best practice is to always follow the OEM recommended drain interval.

Winnipeg Transit engaged with its transmission manufacturer, Allison Transmission, to find the right fluid. Allison chose HF Sinclair brand, Petro-Canada Lubricants’ DuraDrive HD Synthetic 668, the global factory fill automatic transmission fluid for Allison on-highway transmissions, for the job. Winnipeg Transit agreed to undertake a near three-year trial of the fluid.

Fifteen units were trialled, five of which were filled with DuraDrive HD Synthetic 668. Oil samples were taken regularly to track the condition of the fluids and the resulting impact on transmission performance and oil drain intervals.

It soon became apparent that the friction modifier additives within DuraDrive HD Synthetic 668 made the difference and the noise would disappear instantly. The 5 transmissions filled with DuraDrive HD Synthetic 668 transmissions kept going through to the recommended drain interval.

Thanks to the friction modifier system’s durability and proven performance in commercial and heavy-duty transmission systems, DuraDrive HD Synthetic 668 was the right solution to solve the maintenance issues and significantly increase their oil drain intervals back to normal levels.

After nearly three years of regular oil sampling, Winnipeg Transit saw the benefits of using DuraDrive HD Synthetic 668 for its severe duty equipment, experiencing major improvements, including:

• ELIMINATING MAINTENANCE ISSUES

DuraDrive HD Synthetic 668’s high performance additive package and ultra-pure base oil combination provides the fluid with greater resistance to friction concerns which instantly solved the torque converter failures and resulting grunting and growling noises that Winnipeg Transit were experiencing. This reduced the number of service calls that Winnipeg Transit’s maintenance team had to respond to and the fleet was on the road for longer.


• IMPROVED OIL DRAIN INTERVALS

The trial demonstrated that when using DuraDrive HD Synthetic 668 formulated with ultra-pure, high quality Petro-Canada Lubricants synthetic base oils, it is possible to reach the 6,000 hour drain interval** of the original equipment manufacturer (OEM). Through regular oil sampling and analysis, Winnipeg Transit was able to keep its vehicles out on the road longer due to the reduced need for oil changes, while also saving on labour hours and reducing waste which translates into a more sustainable operation.

** Best practice is to follow the OEM recommended drain interval as well as used oil analysis across the drain to identify any oil issues if they occur. 6,000 hours is equivalent to 100K km or 62K miles for this field trial.