Comments by "SeanBZA" (@SeanBZA) on "WeberAuto" channel.

Grey coating is an insulator, to prevent circulating currents through the bearings from any slight imbalance in magnetic field in the motor. there is a single bearing that is grounded ( the shiny one) to prevent charge build up on the rotor and a flash over to the frame, but the rest have to be insulated so they do not have a shorted turn through the frame that can cause a high circulating current through the bearings that rapidly erodes them through arcing. There are current paths for this current via things like the output shafts and the selector forks, but they probably assumed that, being long thin wall section steel assemblies, this long path would both keep the current low enough not to cause any major extra wear, and also the long output shaft would be mostly self cancelling field wise as well. A lot of larger electric motors handle this with one end having coated bearings, or they make them with ceramic bearing balls inside, or just make both sides with insulated bearing mounting frames, and provide a grounding carbon brush assembly to handle shaft grounding. Drawback of the coated bearing is that you have to ensure that there is absolutely no damage to the coating on the outside and the side facing the frame, so that there is no metal to metal path. However, depending on the exact coating applied, this coat can be both insulating and tougher than the steel of the bearing itself. grey would point to a spray on ceramic coating, probably vacuum deposited before final bearing assembly or applied as a plasma coating.
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When you first started this series i had no idea there were so many different spec ATF blends around, and just how specific some vehicles were about them as well. Thank you for the nice detailed explanation and examples. Generally I rarely deal with automatic transmissions, as most of the cars I drive are manual transmission, and in general those give very few troubles, though even there they are very fussy about the right oil fill. Industrial gearboxes thankfully are almost all going to use one of 3 different fluids in them though, and those are very easy to match. Some of them the original stuff that comes out is horrid, not even sure what it was before it turned into stinking sludge, but putting in new 320 viscosity oil works well in almost all cases, except for those that call for a thicker ( 630 viscosity IIRC) or some that used a NGLI 0 grease. I use Dexron as a nice general purpose lubricant though, especially for sliding parts.
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@WeberAuto The VW fluid is not expensive, and almost every dealership will have it as well. Would recommend regular oil changes on the Touareg though, using the ardous service interval in the book, as they are quite well known here for having oil sludge issues and oil pump wear in the hot climate. The 10000 mile/15000km service interval is not really the best for long engine life, especially if you have the TDI engine.
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Friend has a Proton Savvy, which is a single clutch automatic. Shifts on it can best be described as glacial, as it will actuate the clutch, wait for a time, then change the gearbox to the appropriate gear, and slowly release the clutch to engage. Drive it and you are never going to get any fast changes, though it is otherwise a peppy vehicle for the mass and engine size.
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