I was gettin ready to do a fluid change on my transfer case, tranny and diffs and fell out a my chair when I saw the new prices on the fluids. What happened, I know oil prices went through the roof there for a while but even they are down now. What is it that makes the synthetics so much more then they were even a year ago. This is across the board on brands also. I checked AMSOIL and Royal Purple and they are both up about the same.

Guess my trucks gonna have to learn how to go a little longer between changes now.

 

Hey Dennis,

Good question. You're right, they did go up. In fact ours went up 3 different times since last summer, but did drop this March.
As to why..synthetic prices will always follow the crude oil prices just like dino oil. The main ingredients used to make all synthetics, whether they are group 3, 4, or 5 base stocks, are still derived from crude. PAO's are made from ethylene and natural gas.
The additive market also seems to follow this trend as well. I think over this last year the prices of additives went up more than the base stocks if I remember correctly. Then you have packaging(plastics), transportation, etc. that are all effected by the rise in gas prices over the past couple years.
As for prices coming down, there is about a 6 month lags between the time prices drop and supply of the old inventory is depleted in most cases.
Not sure if we will be looking at another drop soon or not. No word has been mentioned as of yet.
Not sure if you are still looking at the wholesale cost of the fluids or not??? If not, let me know and I can get you those....and sell it to you that way as well...if you decide to go the amsoil route.
Heath

 

Thanks Heath, I'll let ya know but it's gonna be a while. Gotten fatten that piggy bank back up for a while and get him to market before I'm gonna be able to do this project. I just completely wasn't countin on these prices when I decided it was time to do this project.