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As the motorcycle market grows, the fuel efficiency of motorcycle oils is becoming an important issue due to concerns over the conservation of natural resources and the protection of the environment. Fuel efficient engine oils have been developed for passenger cars by moving to lower viscosity grades and formulating the additive package to reduce friction. Motorcycle oils, however, which operate in much higher temperature regimes, must also lubricate the transmission and the clutch, and provide gear protection. This makes their requirements fundamentally very different from passenger car oils. Developing fuel efficient motorcycle oils, therefore, can be a difficult challenge. Formulating to reduce friction may cause clutch slippage and reducing the viscosity grade in motorcycles must be done carefully due to the need for gear protection.

The laboratory tests used to define API GL5 have been the cornerstone of gear oil development for well over thirty years. In that time they have served the market very well. Lubricants developed with these test methods have provided adequate protection of axle components from severe wear, scuffing, corrosion, and oxidation. Recently, however, there has been an increasing trend toward extended drain intervals which changes the picture. Coupled with longer oil drain intervals there is a continuing increase of power throughput in the equipment. The combination of increased power and extended service life places significant stress on the oil such that the load carrying ability and thermal and oxidative stability could be greatly diminished under these conditions. During the past ten years the industry has been actively working toward a new gear oil specification that will address the performance needs of today's vehicles.

The automotive vehicle market has seen an increase in the number of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), and forecasts predict additional growth. In HEVs, the hybrid drivetrain hardware can combine electric motor, clutches, gearbox, electro-hydraulics and the control unit. In HEV hardware the transmission fluid can be designed to be in contact with an integrated electric motor. One transmission type well-suited to such hybridization is the increasingly utilized dual clutch transmission (DCT), where a lubricating fluid is in contact with the complete motor assembly as well as the DCT driveline architecture. This includes its electrical components and therefore raises questions around the suitability of standard transmission fluids in such an application. This in turn drives the need for further understanding of fluid electrical properties in addition to the more usually studied engineering hardware electrical properties.

Conventional methods for determining automotive powertrain efficiency include (1) component-level testing, such as engine dynamometer, transmission stand or axle stand testing, (2) simulations based on component level test data and (3) vehicle-level testing, such as chassis dynamometer or on-road testing. This paper focuses on vehicle-level testing to show where energy is lost throughout a complete vehicle powertrain. This approach captures all physical effects of a vehicle driving in real-world conditions, including torque converter lockup strategies, transmission shifting, engine control strategies and inherent mechanical efficiency of the components. A modern rear-wheel drive light duty pickup truck was instrumented and tested on a chassis dynamometer. Power was measured at the engine crankshaft output, the rear driveshaft and at the dynamometer.

Automatic transmission clutches are complex tribological systems. Frictional performance is controlled by the interaction of base fluids, additive components, composition clutches, and steel reaction plates with varying energy inputs and thermal stresses in an oxidizing environment. This paper, rather than addressing fully formulated fluid performance in such a system, takes a more fundamental approach where the number of system variables is reduced and the relative effects of formulation variables on system performance can be better examined. Relationships among observed friction performance, system oxidation, friction member condition, and representative performance additives are explored using a synthetic base fluid and a conventionally refined mineral base fluid.

The Cooperative Lubrication Research (CLR) Oil Test Engine, usually called the L-38, has been used for nearly 25 years to evaluate copper-lead journal bearing protection of gasoline rnotoroils under high-temperature, heavy-duty conditions. The test is sensitive to aggressive surface active additives that may encourage bearing corrosion. The L-38 also provides an estimate of oil durability, assessing the resistance of an oil to the accumulation of acidic by-products of combustion that could attack copper-lead bearings. However, the L-38 engine dynamometer test uses a heavily leaded gasoline that is no longer representative of the commercial fuels available in North America, Europe, or Japan. Rather than discard the L-38, this paper describes work to modify the L-38 procedure to run with unleaded gasoline.

Nylon is used as a material in the design of various components of automatic transmissions. Pump rotor guides and thrust washers are among components designed from nylon. Nylon must be compatible with automatic transmission fluid (ATF). An immersion test using nylon strips in various test fluids was developed. The nylon color change was independent of the physical properties (as measured by change of tensile force) of the material. Testing indicated that nylon color change is catalyzed by oxidation effects, and the change in tensile strength is related to thermal degradation. An automatic transmission fluid (ATF) containing calcium sulfonate detergent showed better oxidation resistance and caused less loss of tensile strength in nylon 6 (PA6).

Diesel engine oils containing a balanced additive package composed of oxidation, corrosion, wear, rust and foam inhibitors plus ashless dispersants and metallic detergents provide long engine life. The major factor is metallic detergent component which contributes alkalinity to the oil and has a direct effect on engine cleanliness and durability. Increased detergent alkalinity reduces deposits and wear, resulting in improved oil control and longer engine life. Careful selection of detergent components is required to control cylinder-bore polishing in diesel engines to assure optimum antiwear and oil control performance.

The wet clutch system (WCS) is a complex combination of friction plates, separator plates and fluid (lubricant). The basic function of the WCS is to transfer torque under various operating conditions such as slipping, shifting, start/launch and/or torque converter clutch (TCC) operation. Under these conditions the slope of the coefficient of friction (μ or COF) versus slip speed (μ-v) curve must be positive to prevent shudder of the WCS, a highly undesirable condition in the lubricated friction system. An extended durability duty cycle test procedure is required to evaluate the WCS during which the μ-v curve is monitored for a negative slope, a condition indicating the potential for shudder. The friction plates, separator plates, and lubricant must be tested together and remain together during the test to be properly evaluated as a WCS.