ATF Decision.....

[Oregoonian]

Will be doing an ATF change shortly (pan drop)....in the 03' Ford Focus. I've got about 41K on the last Mercon V fill.

Was considering either Amsoil, continuing on with Mercon V, or Mobile Synthetic ATF.

Decided to go with....Mobil Syn ATF.

The main reason I chose Mobil..... is price. Amsoil, although I consider it a top-ier syn ATF,....was the most expensive, and a bit of a bother to obtain.

Motorcraft Mercon V ATF (can be obtained at O;Reilly's) for $4.99 a quart.

But Mobil Synthetic ATF...can be obtained locally for just just a $1.50 more than MC Mercon V....at $6.49 a quart...a real bargain IMO.

Since a fellow BITOG'er, tig.... uses it on all his Fords, and has not had a transmission failure yet... I felt Mobil Syn ATF and came highly recommended...and was well priced as well.

Any thoughts on this decision...would be welcome.

 

[daves87rs]

Sounds good! Wish I could find it for 6.49/qt. That's even cheaper than my local Full Synthetic dex VI.....


I've thought about trying either mobil or Amsoil myself...

 

[dave1251]

The most important thing you could of done was change your ATF with a high quality fluid and you did.

 

[Donald]

Don't forget the Magnefine inline filter. Not sure why Amsoil is a bother. I am a PC and I order it online and 2 days latter its at my door. Cannot get much easier than that.

 

[Oregoonian]

Originally Posted By: Donald
Don't forget the Magnefine inline filter. Not sure why Amsoil is a bother. I am a PC and I order it online and 2 days latter its at my door. Cannot get much easier than that.


Since I would not order any other things from Amsoil....even with the PC discount,....the cost of shipping would up the price considerably.

Thought the Mobil 1 ATF was comparable quality wise....and at $6.49 a quart....the price was hard to beat.

 

[BISCUT]

You did well! My next drain I'm moving from Mercon V to MaxLife in the 04 F-150. Can't go wrong with Mobil 1 anything!

 

[tig1]

$6.50 a qt for Mobil 1 ATF is a steal. I'm paying $8.50 or so around here.

 

[Vikas]

I just had drain and fill on the 99 Camry I4 with MaxLife. The previous drain and fill was done with some generic unknown fluid at the shop. Wow, what a difference just two quarts of MaxLife made!

Some people claim that MaxLife works great even on Honda. If that is indeed the case, I would go for it given my positive experience on this Toyota.

Since my mechanic charged me so little to replace the fluid in the trans axle and differential, I have no desire even to try it to do it myself next time. It was trivial on this car but I am not getting my hands dirty. Besides I need to put his kids through college

Surprisingly, the differential was never serviced in my ownership and I doubt if it was done before either. The fluid was great but I just don't understand how it poured out of fill plug! May be the previous owner did change it and changed while the front of the car was jacked up?

Anybody knows if Lube-guard Red changes the color of the transmission fluid? I know it is not cherry red but rather has a brownish tint. I had previously treated my transmission oil with the dosage of LG red and I suspect that is why the trans-axle fluid looked lot dirtier than the differential fluid even though transaxle fluid was less than 6 months old.

I am sold on MaxLife! I put Castrol Import Multi-vehicle in the differential. I hope it is as good as the Valvoline MaxLife.