Changed ATF -> MaxLife ATF in 6F50

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted by tig1
Last week I changed over to Max Life LV in my 2017 Fusion with the 6F35 trans and see no difference in shifting, up or down, VS the MC LV atf.


No Mobil 1 ATF in it?

I used MaxLife ATF in a 2000 Century with great results.

 

[dan_erickson]

Lots of talk about Honda transmission fluid in this threa. I'll be the odd one out and say this about my 2015 Accord V6 with the 6 speed auto. I have tried Max Life, Amsoil, and Red Line D6 in my car and went back the Honda fluid in my transmission. Why might you ask? Every fluid except the Honda fluid would result in a fluttering noise from the trans under a certain load. Made me to believe it was torque converter noise but I don't know what exact part was making the noise.

 

[HangFire]

Originally Posted by Kjmack
There is only 1 reason why people love maxlife . COST. .If the good German ATF had a cheap price e everyone would say it was the best .Myself i put the factory spec. ATF in and call it a day . No guessing or praying because you know its correct .

Maybe I'm not "people"... cost is just one factor... the fact that it is synthetic and has superior shear resistance to many OEM fluids (as tested and verified by PQI) is another factor. Long experience, multiple vehicle-specific forum members having great experiences with it over hundreds of thousands of individual and millions of collective miles. So there's more than one reason.

Mostly, I'm conservative and use OEM spec fluid (Toyota WS, ATF+4 from any certified vendor, etc.). However I had a gasket seal problem on the Toyota (entirely my fault, pan gasket slipped reinstalling pan after a transmission filter change), I hosed off the bottom of the engine... got pink froth on the dipstick. Fortunately I caught it on time, but I was looking at complete ATF change at that point, not just the usual 2 quart drain and fill. So, I picked up a couple gallons of MaxLife and changed it all out. Then, I went right back to my usual 2 quart drain and fill at each engine oil change interval... using Toyota WS. That was 2 years and 35K miles ago, and transmission at over 180K miles is doing fine.

Then last month Honda Pilot got a blinking D (non-ODB II transmission code). Checked fluids, had purple ATF, blue coolant in the transmission. I changed out the radiator (this is a very common issue on the 2005 Pilot) but once again I was looking at immediate, complete fluid replacement. Bought 2 gallons of MaxLife ATF. Transmission happy again. And once again, I'll slowly replace that with Honda DW-1 drain and fills, at each engine oil change interval.

 

[GON]

Originally Posted by Fifty150
Originally Posted by hallstevenson
Originally Posted by RyanY
LOL that sounds like the Honda crowd claiming that one must use Honda fluids in the trans, brakes, PS, radiator, etc!

Same with the Nissan / Infiniti crowd, as I've found out since buying a G35.




Honda Fan-Boys believe that everything Honda is perfect. I also know a Japanese chef who really believes that Japanese spaghetti is better than Italian. Without getting into all of the real life problems that Honda cars do have.....and I know because i have owned them, family members have owned them, and friends have owned them......My buddy's eyes got as big as a saucer when he saw me pouring Lucas Oil into the engine, and installing a Ford MotorCraft filter on my Accord. My brother in law couldn't believe that I poured Lucas ATF into my Accord. I'm a little more open minded. Every oil on sale, in the correct weight, has gone into my cars. Transmission fluid will work, as long as it meets or exceeds specs. I've wrecked cars. I've lost cars that were stolen and never recovered. I've had cars with so much body rust that rain was pouring into the car and it was rusting throughout. I've sold cars just because they no longer appealed to me. But i've never lost a car because the wrong oil or transmission fluid rendered the inoperable.

Honda owners can continue to believe that OEM Honda is the only fluid which will work in their cars. It doesn't hurt anyone else. From my own experience, other fluids ded not cause catastrophic events.


I put MAXLIFE in my 2006 Acura MDX with 80k miles. Had to haul a small trailer behind the MDX cross-country, without the optional Acura Trans-cooler. The MAXLIFE performed flawlessly, I felt better with running MAXLIFE synthetic knowing the trans was running hotter because of the additional trailer weight.

I will likely be replacing my 2007 Ford F350 OEM auto transmission fluid with MAXLIFE in the very near future.

 

[dave1251]

Originally Posted by Kjmack
There is only 1 reason why people love maxlife . COST. .If the good German ATF had a cheap price e everyone would say it was the best .Myself i put the factory spec. ATF in and call it a day . No guessing or praying because you know its correct .



Not a very well researched response. It is popular because it is synthetic based blend with a lubrizol additve pack.

 

[dave1251]

Originally Posted by demarpaint
Originally Posted by tig1
Last week I changed over to Max Life LV in my 2017 Fusion with the 6F35 trans and see no difference in shifting, up or down, VS the MC LV atf.


No Mobil 1 ATF in it?

I used MaxLife ATF in a 2000 Century with great results.


tig did some research and found Mobil 1 ATF was thicker than LV. He then made a very good decsion to use Maxlife ATF.

 

[HangFire]

Originally Posted by Fifty150
The only problem is that I have cars which use Mercon V, and Mercon LV.......and I'm in California. Read the fine print. MaxLife meets Mercon V, but not in California.....

PQI Accepted Valvoline's explanation that OEM fluids shear down faster than synthetic MaxLife, so starting out a bit thinner than spec was considered OK as long as it didn't break down much further. The State of California does not accept, or I think, even have a way to accept that explanation. The state law is what it is.

http://www.pqiamerica.com/ATFdecember2012/valvolinemaxATF.htm

 

[dave1251]

Originally Posted by HangFire
Originally Posted by Fifty150
The only problem is that I have cars which use Mercon V, and Mercon LV.......and I'm in California. Read the fine print. MaxLife meets Mercon V, but not in California.....

PQI Accepted Valvoline's explanation that OEM fluids shear down faster than synthetic MaxLife, so starting out a bit thinner than spec was considered OK as long as it didn't break down much further. The State of California does not accept, or I think, even have a way to accept that explanation. The state law is what it is.

http://www.pqiamerica.com/ATFdecember2012/valvolinemaxATF.htm




The People's Republic of California has made more than a couple of decisions which has proven it had no business making.

 

[GZRider]

Honda Power Steering Fluid may be something special, idk I have never owned a Honda. What I do know is a few Infiniti dealers in the wild green country to the north of the Peoples Republic of California who are now using Valvoline Maxlife FS ATF for the JATCO 7at services. I brought my 12x sedan in for a 75k drivetrain maintenance (trans, diffs and transfer case with new gasket) to one of them and insisted on speaking with the mechanic and getting details from the service adviser and they were surprisingly helpful (and also G owners). They've been using the Maxlife for about two years now and insist it holds up better especially with hills and altitude, hard driving or people who tow with the SUV's as it handles the heat better then the Matic S. I then inquired about Mobil 1 Amsoil and Redline's offerings for the 7AT, to which they replied those are also fantastic ATF's but we'd need to order them. The dealer was even willing to comp the difference for parts cost if I insisted on genuine Matic-S, but I went ahead with the Maxlife based on what I've read on here and it's working great 5k miles later.

 

[redhat]

MaxLife been in the trans for over 1k miles and it has been great.

 

[Hall]

Originally Posted by GZRider
They've been using the Maxlife for about two years now and insist it holds up better especially with hills and altitude, hard driving or people who tow with the SUV's as it handles the heat better then the Matic S. I then inquired about Mobil 1 Amsoil and Redline's offerings for the 7AT, to which they replied those are also fantastic ATF's but we'd need to order them. The dealer was even willing to comp the difference for parts cost if I insisted on genuine Matic-S, but I went ahead with the Maxlife based on what I've read on here and it's working great 5k miles later.

I'm curious how they decided on going with Valvoline MaxLife (or any other ATF if they had ended up with a different one). I know Valvoline, Castrol, etc say they meet the applicable spec and I believe them but it would be real interesting to know if Infiniti told them, "yeah, go ahead, those are fine ATFs" !

 

[dave1251]

Originally Posted by hallstevenson
Originally Posted by GZRider
They've been using the Maxlife for about two years now and insist it holds up better especially with hills and altitude, hard driving or people who tow with the SUV's as it handles the heat better then the Matic S. I then inquired about Mobil 1 Amsoil and Redline's offerings for the 7AT, to which they replied those are also fantastic ATF's but we'd need to order them. The dealer was even willing to comp the difference for parts cost if I insisted on genuine Matic-S, but I went ahead with the Maxlife based on what I've read on here and it's working great 5k miles later.

I'm curious how they decided on going with Valvoline MaxLife (or any other ATF if they had ended up with a different one). I know Valvoline, Castrol, etc say they meet the applicable spec and I believe them but it would be real interesting to know if Infiniti told them, "yeah, go ahead, those are fine ATFs" !



Dealerships don't work like that unless the OEM is providing the fluid. Dealerships are free to use fluid from where ever. Most stick with Manufacturer's aftermarket for convenience.

 

[Hall]

But, but, but for warranty reasons, they're not complying (partial sarcasm, partial serious).

 

[GZRider]

hallstevenson- Good point although for those under new car warranty. Nissan also got in trouble with this when Valvoline threatened a lawsuit a few years back, the Magnuson-Moss Act of 1975 prohibits manufacturers from specifying their own specific brand of fluids, filters, etc. to maintain a vehicle's warranty eligibility unless that manufacturer agrees to provide said items free of charge to the vehicle owner so I'm not sure where it stands with the 7at and the new car warranty. For me, I'm under extended Infiniti warranty now not new car, and I had the work done at one of their top dealers, who suggested the Maxlife, not myself. No one else has touched the trans, transfer or diffs on the car besides Infiniti dealers, and I made them put in writing on the invoice that the fluid they provided meets all Nissan/ Infiniti warranty requirements so either way, I should be covered legally. I used to work in the industry in sales, so when it comes to car dealers,I rarely trust but always verify.

 

[Hall]

The manual for my '08 is pretty 'strong' in regards to not using Matic-J ATF (bold and italics added by me):

Quote
Using automatic transmission fluid other than Genuine NISSAN Matic J ATF will cause deterioration in driveability and automatic transmission durability, and may damage the automatic transmission, which is not covered by the INFINITI new vehicle limited warranty.
I had read that Infiniti (Nissan) toned down that language in later years but I looked up manuals for '12, '13, etc models and it remained the same.

I've also seen some people claim that Nissan Matic-J is both an actual fluid that you can buy (which it clearly is/was) and that it was a spec, meaning any fluid that meets that spec is fine as well. The fact that Infiniti or Nissan dealers are using non-Nissan fluid tells me all I need to know....