I was about to get some ATF fluid to service my Alfine, top of the Google rank is a Youtube video;

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGks14goow0[/video]

In summary, guy oil bath’d his Alfine, oil seeped through the seals and contaminated his rear disc.

So, did he use crap (thin) ATF fluid, have some bad luck, leave too much oil in the hub, or is he on to something?

Is there any advantage to an oil bath than just smearing grease over the hub? Would I be better getting something thick like differential oil and warm it up to thin it for the dunk?

Anyone regretted the (non-shimano) oil bath?

I think a bump is fully justified 🙂

This guy seems to have taken a few of these to bits. It looks like there are some places wher grease is needed and some oil (the article suggests that oil alone would come out the seals).

The question that springs to mind is whether a ‘preventative’ service would actually do more harm than good? Obviously if you are having problems there’s a benefit, but otherwise I might be tempted to leave it be.

I’m only just wearing mine in (a few hundred miles tops) but do rather like it – what sort of life has yours had?

Dipping the internals in oil is supposed to “rinse” the fine metal filings out of the mechanism, prolonging the life of the hub. You should drain the internals for a few minutes afterwards as the 8 speed seals are not designed to keep large quantities of oil in the hub, just a teaspoon or so of that which inevitably drains into the shell after the internals are replaced back into the hub shell.

Mate of mine used ATF and it corroded the seals (cost him a tenner to replace those), but there are plenty of success stories. The correct Shimano stuff is £54 from Fatbirds. It’s a 15min job and a doddle to do. The oil is reusable loads of times. I’m not sure it’s worth the potential costs of using the wrong stuff – if the internals were just metal and bearings I could see the point but there are hard plastic components within that can become brittle when in contact with the wrong stuff.

I have found on the MTB I tend to need to do it 3 months into a new hub, then every 6 months, riding twice weekly at 40-50miles a week, presumably because the loads within the hub are higher on technical climbs, and I can feel a tiny bit of give in the roller clutch. On the commuter I get away with every 18-24m for a similar mileage.

I did mine, the oil did get on the disc, even if the seals were packed with heavy grease. Serpantly reduced rolling resistance though. Cant remmber the one I used first, some ATF but it was too thick, I think the better one was Dexron 2 (?).

I’ve not had a problem with leaking oil, but you do need to drain the internals well. The guy in the video isn’t really rinsing the internals of any debris. He means well, but makes the cable removal harder than it needs to be, is handling his disc with oily thumbs, and removes the lock ring from the drive side, which is unnecessary. I’d watch the video with a pinch of salt thrown in!

I reckon I’ve done maybe 800 offroad miles on it over three years, it was second hand but don’t think it had done much before that as it came as a fairly good condition wheelset.

There is nothing that makes me think it needs a service particularly, but the cog seems to have a bit of sideways movement in it (it twists a tiny bit when you move the pedals forward) which I know is not related to the hub internals but still concerns me a bit, and when plugging through thick/sticky mud uphill the resistance seems to increase substantially, and I can feel the hub through the pedals.

Scruff, funny you mention Dexron 2, my task this afternoon is to replace the power steering fluid in my van (rather urgent as the steering has become heavy and notchy when hot) so will have a half litre or so of Dexron II D (Iveco SAE 10w) left over.

P.S I did notice (and commented) that he makes a meal out of removing the inner cable, its a one handed job 🙂