SURFACE REV. J308 MAR2007 VEHICLE Issued 1924-02 INFORMATION Revised 2007-03 REPORT Superseding J308 JAN1996 (R) Axle and Manual Transmission Lubricants RATIONALE Vehicle manufacturers, lubricant suppliers, additive companies, and users all reference specifications to define the lubricant for a given axle or manual transmission. This document catalogs these specifications and provides valuable information about these lubricants. FOREWORD In 1943, the U.S. Army Ordnance Department (currently the Fuels and Lubricants Technology Team, under Petroleum and Water Business Area of US Army Tank, Automotive, Research, Development and Engineering Center - TARDEC) began qualifying gear lubricants against U.S. Army Specification 2–105. This specification has gone through several revisions, the most recent being MIL-PRF-2105E The American Petroleum Institute recognizes gear lubricants meeting this latter specification as API Service GL-5 (API GL-5). In 1977, the U.S. Army terminated direct sponsorship of the qualification process and contracted with SAE to: (a) perform the reviewing activity, and (b) make recommendations relative to the acceptance of candidate products under the military gear lubricant specification. In accordance with its contract with SAE, the U.S. Army retains sole responsibility for approving and qualifying products to its specification. Following termination of the U.S. Army sponsorship, the SAE Board of Directors established a Lubricants Review Institute (LRI), which in turn has established an LRI Gear Lubricant Review Committee. This committee developed procedures for submitting candidate lubricants for review as well as procedures for reviewing such lubricants. The LRI activities are reviewed by SAE Legal Counsel to ensure compliance with applicable federal and state laws. The LRI Gear Lubricant Review Procedures can be obtained from SAE Headquarters in Warrendale, PA. In 1991 the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) issued a directive to adopt, wherever practical, commercial standards in preference to federal and military specifications. This was done to curtail the governmental activities required to maintain these specifications. In response to this directive the military specification was rewritten as a performance specification, MIL-PRF-2105E, and SAE established SAE J2360 in 1998. SAE J2360 is identical to MIL-PRF-2105E with the exception that it provides a procedure for any marketer who meets all the performance requirements to be added to a qualified products list. In 2005, DoD adopted the SAE J2360 document for procurement of all gear oils used in tactical/combat vehicles used by the military services. Over the years, specifications for passenger car and commercial vehicle axle and manual transmission fluids have deviated from the basic MIL Spec requirements by incorporating additional requirements for specific applications. In such cases OEM’s usually use MIL specs or portions of MIL Specs as foundations to which they add additional requirements. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ SAE Technical Standards Board Rules provide that: “This report is published by SAE to advance the state of technical and engineering sciences. The use of this report is entirely voluntary, and its applicability and suitability for any particular use, including any patent infringement arising therefrom, is the sole responsibility of the user.” SAE reviews each technical report at least every five years at which time it may be reaffirmed, revised, or cancelled. SAE invites your written comments and suggestions. Copyright © 2006 SAE International All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of SAE. TO PLACE A DOCUMENT ORDER: Tel: 877-606-7323 (inside USA and Canada) Tel: 724-776-4970 (outside USA) Fax: 724-776-0790 Email: CustomerService@sae.org SAE WEB ADDRESS: http://www.sae.org SAE J308 Revised MAR2007 - 2 - 1. SCOPE This SAE Information Report was prepared by the SAE Fuels and Lubricants Technical Committee for two purposes: (a) to assist the users of automotive equipment in the selection of axle1 and manual transmission lubricants for field use, and (b) to promote a unifo