Not sure. But the cable was an OEM part, and the old, broken one I took off the first time was a clean break at the transmission connection. I would have thought that the rubber is there to keep everything out, including water that might freeze. The sad part is that the cable had a two year warranty- and I waited a year and a half to put it on.
Anyway, if anybody knows of some sort of non-freezing lube that I can put on there, let me know.
Why did I wait that long?? I didn't want to put it on and find out it was something more expensive. It's one of those "just-in-case" quirks that I posess. I could have kicked myself after I finally did. One of the easiest repairs I've ever done, and we drove all that time with a Garmin Forerunner strapped to the steering wheel to know the mph. Anyway...