[mwt]

There was a topic on here the other day and some people said not to use The Valvoline MaxLife on Transmissions requiring Mercon V.

I went to Valvoline's website and asked them. They emailed me a letter that has been published by their Technical Director basically saying that it is recommended for applications requiring Ford's Mercon V and other manufactures specifications. It does state not to use it in Type F applications.

It is in PDF form and I have no idea how to get it posted here. You can't copy and paste it. If anybody knows how let me know and I will post it.

Mike

 

[tmonster]

Valvoline can eat my dead skin cells.....

 

[henrysel]

Maybe it's all marketing. I looked it up and it appears the specs are a little different. They also sell two other types of ATF fluids, Durablend Dextron III/Mercon V and Valvoline Mercon V.

With that, why take chances with your transmission, just get something that says it's Mercon V instead of just Mercon.

According to my manual, the ford part # for Mercon V is XT-5-QM which isn't listed as one of the specs on the Maxlife fluid.

 

[Wally]

Here's what I found out.

Mercon is old school dino oil.
Mercon V is new school synthetic.
For my '01, the manual says either the blend or the full synthetic is OK.

DO NOT use regular Mercon For what a quart costs VS a trans, I'm not sure why you'd want to even try...

Some Ford transmissions have had lube issues. The synthetic may be key to addressing those problems.

 

[sundarpn]

my 96 GL... takes regular mercon. I used the regular Maxlife ATF (dextron/mercon)

 

[Wally]

from what I saw on the Valvoline site, if you need Mercon V, the only thing that Valvoline makes that will meet the spec is Durablend. Maxlife will not.

 

[mwt]

Originally posted by Wally@May 3 2004, 11:19 AM
from what I saw on the Valvoline site, if you need Mercon V, the only thing that Valvoline makes that will meet the spec is Durablend. Maxlife will not.

If you will read my original post I received a letter from Valvoline stating that Maxlife WILL meet the mercon V spec.

Mike

 

[Wally]

They may have sent you a letter, but their basic product descriptions steer you to Durablend for V applications. One hand doesn't always know what the other is doing and I get nervous when I see that... especially when I get stuck with the rebuild.

 

[Rockledge]

The 5R55E tranny in my Ranger requires Mercon V. One time I had a Valvoline Quick Lube shop flush the tranny and put fresh fluid in it (had a coupon). They used their Durablend ATF. Well, I drove around for about a week and was not happy at all with the results. The tranny was shifting somewhat harshly, even the timing of the shifts felt a little off.

So I decided to flush the tranny again myself (change the filter, too), and this time try another fluid. I decided to go with Castrol Mercon V because it is specifically approved and recommended by Ford. It is not a "hybrid" formula that attempts to cover many different specifications. Instead, it is Mercon V as Ford and Motorcraft intended it to be.

After servicing the tranny myself with the Castrol Mercon V, the performance of the tranny improved 100%. Smoother, more timely shifts, etc. Bottom line is that the Valvoline Durablend just didn't cut it.