According to Wikipedia, Gear oil is a lubricant made specifically for transmissions, transfer cases, and differentials in automobiles, trucks, and other machinery. It has high viscosity and usually contains organosulfur compounds. Some modern automatic transaxles (integrated transmission and differential) do not use a heavy oil at all but lubricate with the lower viscosity hydraulic fluid, which is available at pressure within the automatic transmission.

Most lubricants for manual gearboxes and differentials contain extreme pressure (EP) additives and antiwear additives to cope with the sliding action of hypoid bevel gears. Typical additives include dithiocarbamate derivatives and sulfur-treated organic compounds (“sulfurized hydrocarbons”).