My dealer told me not to run synthetic OIL, belive that? I've had ATV dealers tell me not to run synthetic oil in my quads, total nonsense. Ive heard "its too slippery"(WTF?)"it will cause gasket leaks" "whatever you do don't ever mix regular oil with it, will cause the oil to gum up and seize your engine" "can't use it on a wet clutch" "could void your warranty" "run regular oil for the first few oil changes before switching"(more nonsense, look up mobile1.com and see how many vehicles come from the factory with synthetic).

Companies with large fleets of vehicles have been using synthetics for YEARS with NO problem and in fact synthetics have been proven to extend the life of engines used very heavily. I read an article where a company that ran generators 24/7 and rebuilt them themselves on a regular schedule switched to synthetics and nearly tripled the amount of time between rebuilds and found the engines to be in much better shape despite the extended intervals.

 

No problem with synthetics. Mobil 1 claims that it is ok to use (by there engineers). There is no official "meets or exceeds ATF+4 requirments" on the bottle I read. Just "recommended" on the Mobil 1 bottle. There are other brands of ATF+4 popping up from Havoline and others if you are worried about a particular brand not being "certified" or "approved" by DC.

 

The ATF+4 (9602) is apparently made for DCx by Lubrizol.

Recently it appears DCx and Lubrizol have finally agreed to
allow others to sell aftermarket versions of ATF+4

This interesting Redline oil .pdf file compares the specs of various ATF's

http://www.redlineoil.com/pdf/3.pdf

 

I looked into Royal Purple and they do not suggest any of their ATF for Mopars. After working at the dealership for a while, I wouldn't risk putting anything but ATF+4 in my Dodge. I've seen so many problems, or heard horror stories about people putting anything but Mopar ATF in a mopar transmission. When either RedLine, Royal Purple, or Amsoil say on the bottle "For 2002-2006 Dodge Ram's" thats the time I'll change, otherwise its not worth the risk to me. Thats just my $.02

 

I agree that all the evidence is that ATF+4 9602
is an extremely good ATF

If my transmission were under warranty
I would have nothing but official ATF+4
in it and I would have it changed according
to the 'extreme service' schedule.

If you bring your own container to the dealership
most will sell you the 9602 at the bulk price.

 

Valvoline now makes an ATF+4, certified by DCX as well ... I recently installed the TransGo shift kit and swapped tranny filters and did not estimate enough fluid that I bought at the dealer. Ended up using another 2 qts of Valvoline's ATF+4 and glad I found it because it was the 4th holiday and I am sure no local dealer part dept was open. Besides the stuff costs half as much as it did from the dealer.