2015 Ford Fusion ATF

[tcruise]

I did a drain and fill on my sister's Fusion today and have to say it was pretty painless. Pull the drain plug, measure, fill...no drama. I'm glad I did it 'cause that fluid was dark!! Mercon LV seems to do that, it was the same story when I did my truck. Did both at 30k miles.

Fusion

F150

 

[SZR48207]

I seem to recall the factory Mercon V fill on my old truck being that dark on the first drain. But every subsequent drain (on the same amount of miles) was never as black.

Maybe the initial break in of the trans can be attributed to the color?

 

[tcruise]

I guess we'll see! I'll do it on both in another 30k

 

[SirTanon]

Mercon LV tends to darken quickly, and since your Fusion has the 2.5 liter, I'm also going to assume it has the 6F35 trans, which is also known to be hard on fluid, so it makes sense that it would be that dark at 30,000 miles.

You did your part. The drain & fill @30,000 miles has gotten my 2010 (also with the 2.5 liter and 6F35 trans) to 229,932 miles, as of tonight

 

[pbm]

I have a 2016 Escape with the 2.5/6F35 drivetrain and I plan on D&Ring the FF at 20K.
Is the drain plug easy to find? (I haven't looked for it yet). I found the fill hole (hidden) near the battery.

 

[tcruise]

Originally Posted By: SirTanon
229,932 miles, as of tonight


Wow that's awesome. I think that's what she wants is for this thing to last forever. So every 30k, it seems to work.

 

[tcruise]

Yup. It's a small pipe plug directly on bottom. The fill hole, at least on the Fusion, is directly below the throttle body. You just pull uo on the fill plug and it should come right out. I used a funnel with a long flexible tube on the end to refill Which worked perfectly.

 

[pbm]

Originally Posted By: tomcruise
Yup. It's a small pipe plug directly on bottom. The fill hole, at least on the Fusion, is directly below the throttle body. You just pull uo on the fill plug and it should come right out. I used a funnel with a long flexible tube on the end to refill Which worked perfectly.


Did you measure what came out and replace it?
I plan on draining it COLD and measuring it and replacing that exact amount so as to avoid having to check the level while running (hard to do on ramps).

 

[MolaKule]

Now, all of my vehicles have drain plugs and dipsticks.

I drain and measure to the Liter and fraction thereof.

I find that after warmup, the fluid level may be a few hundreds of milliliters (tenths of liters) low.

I then add enough fluid to get to the middle of the hatch marks (fluid hot) in 100 milliliter increments.

 

[SirTanon]

It is fortunate the 6F35 does have the drain plug. Makes it so incredibly easy without having to modify anything.

Regarding volume of liquid - I have a clear gallon Sterilite container that I drain into. It's marked on the side, and I try to put in as close to the drained volume as possible. If I go over a gallon, I put the plug back in part-way, pour out the fluid from the container, and then start again. It usually works out to about 4.5 quarts.

 

[Hall]

Originally Posted By: tomcruise
You just pull uo on the fill plug and it should come right out. I used a funnel with a long flexible tube on the end to refill Which worked perfectly.
On mine, the 'cap' is just like the power steering cap on (older) Hondas - it's just a cap with a 4-way (cross-shaped) protrusion that fits into the rubber 'hose'. One downside to that rubber hose is your funnel tends to create a pretty air-tight seal and it will burp air bubbles when filling, so DO NOT dump too much in too quickly.

 

[panthermike]

I remember the first drain of ATF on my old '10 Fusion looked similar, LV seems to be that way commonly. I do love the drain plug on these as well. I tend to add a drain plug to any of my vehicles that don't have one, so much easier.