Increasing Transmission Fluid viscosity to help with shudder?

[Noobto_rescue]

Hello this is my first post.

Purpose- is to thicken my transmission fluid to help with a shudder. To slightly increase pressure in valve body and TC

Vehicle-2013 ford edge 150000 miles with shudder 40mps to 60mps. I did Mercon Lv drain and fill 3-times.

Already in fluid is lubeguard platinum about 15ozs and it has improved 75% of shutter. I will not add more because I’m worried about slippage and the existing seal conditioners in platinum.

Question I want to thicken my fluid without additional leak stop or seal conditioners. This rules out Lucas transmission fix which would thicken my Mercon LV but may effect seals. I am considering Lucas engine oil Stabilizer or LM Visco plus in 5 oz increments. Does anyone want to discuss or have an opinion on this idea?

I believe a slight increase in pressure will help this transmission.

 

[walterjay]

Well.........back in the day people would add a little STP into the transmission oil to help prevent slipping and such. It helped. No idea what would happen in a modern transmission.

 

[JavierH19]

Viscosity not so much. More so with the additive pack. You can try Valvoline Extended Protection atf which is dexron HP and mercon lv but the dex hp means it has a better additive pack for anti shudder as that was the issue with the gm 8 speed. I know an old trick was to use a bit of atf type f as shudder is just clutch slip/chatter in the converter but it could make shifts stiffer though some saw that as a positive. I've used the type f trick in old transmissions to quicken up soggy shifts and it worked. I'd try the EP atf first though.

 

[SC Maintenance]

Transmax Universal claims to be Merc LV compatible, but is KV of 7.1. Google tells me original LV is 6.0. I am not sure if that is enough viscosity increase to matter - but its something:

https://msdspds.castrol.com/msdspds...=Full&spu=Lubricants&unrestrictedmb=No&cols=0

 

[Noobto_rescue]

Thanks for stp, type F and Transmax suggestion they are in the running.

I follow a couple YouTube transmissions shops repair shops and they showed swollen seals vs new seals taken from a tear down and it was pretty clear that the seals swelled.

 

[jetman]

The allison 6 speed auto in my Prevost bus uses Mobil 1 Delvac synthetic atf with a viscosity @ 100C of 7.0.

 

[JavierH19]

Thanks for stp, type F and Transmax suggestion they are in the running.

I follow a couple YouTube transmissions shops repair shops and they showed swollen seals vs new seals taken from a tear down and it was pretty clear that the seals swelled.

That's if you use too much seal swellers and I highly doubt that lubeguard syringe has much. There are people that buy an entire big bottle of plasticizer like at 205 and dump the whole thing in which I would never do.

 

[Noobto_rescue]

thx

 

[Fordiesel69]

If you have the 6F35 and 150K, the TC is shot and it wont matter. Double dose the platinum, it will not hurt the seals. The 6F35 regardless of what ford says requires service every 30k or the TC will fail. The 6F50 is a much better transmission and is offered on the V6 equipped edge. 50K inervals are good but some day its converter can fail too.

I am not a salesman, nor do I push the valvoline maxlife ATF, but I had to use it in my ram due to the rediculious cost of the mopar fluid, and when I did use the mopar fluid with the lubegaurd platinum it did not work nearly as well as the maxlife. Because the maxlife is universal, it will have a thicker viscocity overall, and they will out a default friction additive that is balances for all makes and models.

Also if you are not using Forscan with your laptop, do so now, it is completely free. Make sure to reset the adaptive learning. This will fix the problem in the short term and allow the new fluid to do its job and condition any remaining lining of the TC.

Ending, please check your misfire counter live when the shuttering is occuring, you may have a plug or coil on its way out, or worse the plug well can be filled with oil. They feel so much the same it is very hard to tell.

I have a double dose in two dodge 845RE's and they are fine. One with mopar fluid, one with maxlife. One with 202K, one with 228K.

 

[Nukeman7]

Lubegard Instant Shudder Fixx is the specialty product for your problem. It might work better than just adding the Lubegard Platinum treatment.

 

[Noobto_rescue]

I was chasing the vibrations for a while new plugs checked coils no misfire codes. This is a sport so it has 22 inch based tires which were recently replaced at about the time the vibrations started. Chased that for a while check tie rods ball joints all good then and engine & transmission mounts were assumed the issue but were all good. Ended on TC I think this common with edge, explorer line. The relearn is helpful thx.

Lubeguard platinum when in and almost has it worked out maybe I’ll add a couple more oz per week and see. Only shudder left is on incline under load.

 

[Fordiesel69]

Does the shudder continue or only when the TC locks and unlocks while it selects the next lower gear?

 

[Noobto_rescue]

Shudder is only while tc is locked driving up incline . Once it disengages shudder stops. If TC is locked up on flat ground shudder has disappeared.

 

[Fordiesel69]

1.) Reset adaptive learning.
2.) Add more lubeguard
3.) Wait 2 weeks before panic, it does take time for the additives to interact and soak into the glazed lining.

Once a friction lining gets glazed, it does take a very long time to become effective. You basically need to wear off the glaze.

Think motorcycle clutch, accidentally put energy conserving oil and and it slips and gets glazed, it takes months for the JASO MA2 oil to correct the slippage.

 

[SC Maintenance]

If you have the 6F35 and 150K, the TC is shot and it wont matter. Double dose the platinum, it will not hurt the seals. The 6F35 regardless of what ford says requires service every 30k or the TC will fail. The 6F50 is a much better transmission and is offered on the V6 equipped edge. 50K inervals are good but some day its converter can fail too.

I am not a salesman, nor do I push the valvoline maxlife ATF, but I had to use it in my ram due to the rediculious cost of the mopar fluid, and when I did use the mopar fluid with the lubegaurd platinum it did not work nearly as well as the maxlife. Because the maxlife is universal, it will have a thicker viscocity overall, and they will out a default friction additive that is balances for all makes and models.

Also if you are not using Forscan with your laptop, do so now, it is completely free. Make sure to reset the adaptive learning. This will fix the problem in the short term and allow the new fluid to do its job and condition any remaining lining of the TC.

Ending, please check your misfire counter live when the shuttering is occuring, you may have a plug or coil on its way out, or worse the plug well can be filled with oil. They feel so much the same it is very hard to tell.

I have a double dose in two dodge 845RE's and they are fine. One with mopar fluid, one with maxlife. One with 202K, one with 228K.

Maxlife ATF is slightly thinner than what he has in there now, assuming its official Merc LV.

Not saying it will or won't help - just pointing that out. I liked the old Maxlife formulation better - and its really sort of dirty to change the viscosity and other stuff completely and call it the same thing.

 

[Fordiesel69]

Maxlife ATF is slightly thinner than what he has in there now, assuming its official Merc LV.

Not saying it will or won't help - just pointing that out. I liked the old Maxlife formulation better - and its really sort of dirty to change the viscosity and other stuff completely and call it the same thing.

Valvoline is a self certify type of company and have in house testing. Not a fan anymore, but I wish there were laws that would force stellantis to act responsible. They lie and tell you its a lifetime fluid so it fails, and then price the fluid super high to stop the public to purchase it, is the only reason I would consider maxlife. GM and FORD i would just use their OEM fluid and be done.

 

[SC Maintenance]

Valvoline is a self certify type of company and have in house testing. Not a fan anymore, but I wish there were laws that would force stellantis to act responsible. They lie and tell you its a lifetime fluid so it fails, and then price the fluid super high to stop the public to purchase it, is the only reason I would consider maxlife. GM and FORD i would just use their OEM fluid and be done.

I have no particular problem with Maxlife - I ran it in my T-case and it was fine, until it wasn't - then when researching it I found out they re-formulated to a thinner Kv presumably to be compatible with more specs. I switched back to a thicker Transmax and problems solved.

Most OEM's now call it "lifetime" fluid. There definition of lifetime and mine are different.

 

[Sequoiasoon]

HPL ATF Blue Multispec is 7.239 cst at 100C.

Sale is happening in a couple days. Not in-expensive but maybe what you are looking for. I'm ordering more for my daughters '08 CRV. I went with that based on HPL's recommendation because it was originally spec'd for the old thicker Z-1.

I have HPL LV in my Pilot after dealer replaced the TC under warranty. I wanted away from the DW-1 that was not holding up.

 

[Noobto_rescue]

Update to increase the pressure in my TC and valve body I ended up using Lucas Transmission fix. The bottle is 24oz I ended up using half the bottle.

My shudder is gone completely even driving up incline.

Overall I did 3 drain and fills with Mercon LV and added 15oz lube guard platinum. That was a big improvement to about 75 percent shudder removed I was only getting shudder up hill. After about 400 miles I added the Lucas which is a very thick additive. My shudder is completely gone at this point.

Would love to be able to get 20-30k miles without a shudder returning. Replacing TC is not in the budget

Thanks for everyone posting. Im assuming the shudder will eventually return at some point.

 

[Chief2025]

Hello this is my first post.

Purpose- is to thicken my transmissionmission fluid to help with a shudder. To slightly increase pressure in valve body and TC

Vehicle-2013 ford edge 150000 miles with shudder 40mps to 60mps. I did Mercon Lv drain and fill 3-times.

Already in fluid is lubeguard platinum about 15ozs and it has improved 75% of shutter. I will not add more because I’m worried about slippage and the existing seal conditioners in platinum.

Question I want to thicken my fluid without additional leak stop or seal conditioners. This rules out Lucas transmissionmission fix which would thicken my Mercon LV but may effect seals. I am considering Lucas engine oil Stabilizer or LM Visco plus in 5 oz increments. Does anyone want to discuss or have an opinion on this idea?

I believe a slight increase in pressure will help this transmissionmission.

Why not just use lubegard platinum - - - - - - - they claim to stop transmission shudder.
All their products are the real deal - - -


ooops - - - glad to see its worked