Lucas p/s and tranny fluid?

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Ga129

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Tupelo, MS and Birmingham, AL
Has anyone used it?
I'm not talking about the additive, but the actual "universal" power steering fluid and "universal" transmission fluid? I bought some at autozone the other day and am going to put it in my car, just doing some routine maintenance. My experiences with lucas products have been mixed; The oil additive has done good things for some of my cars in the past, but the gas additive is a waste of money imho. I plan on using the turkey baster method and basically replacing the exact amount i take out with the new fluid in the p/s. And i plan on draining the transmission fluid and replacing the same amount or w/e it requires. Haven't decided if i want to bother putting a new transmission filter in or not. Any comments or past experiences to talk about? this is a 2006 Kia Optima LX with almost 118k miles
 
wanting to try something different. If anything, i want to try to extend the life of my p/s system and transmission. I put a lot of miles on very quickly. I've actually posted before, and at first came to the conclusion of using MaxLife Dex/Merc in the transmission, but wanted to see others opinions on the Lucas brand stuff before making any purchases. From what i've read, this car can really dirty up some ATF quickly (within 30k miles) and wanted to see if anything (like MaxLife or Lucas) would be a better choice. And, For the record, i haven't bought any ATF yet, i only bought the P/S fluid.
 
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I don't know squat about a KIA but make sure its compatible first, I doubt you'll do any harm with the Lucas stuff but it will lighten your wallet more than the Maxlife will, its hard to beat for a Full Synthetic fluid that seems to work everywhere.

I do use the Lucas P/S and trans additive, love the stuff and have seen it work some pretty magic on worn P/S systems and older A/T trans. My old transmission guy swears by it, he won't warrant one of his trans unless you put a bottle in.
 
I tried the power steering fluid in my '93 Ford Taurus power steering pump to try to quiet down the noise. Didn't do a thing for the noise. After a while, I pulled it out and replaced it with "Max Life" transmission fluid - significant reduction in noise within 50 miles of driving.
 
If you readup on the lucas threads on here, you'll fine very few (if any) positives on any lucas product.
With that said, I'd personally just use the OEM based oils instead.
Experiment with addtives IF the need arises.
A lot of times the additives down the road create the issues.

any transmission guy that says lucas has to be installed needs to stayed far away from.
 
Originally Posted By: racin4ds
I don't know squat about a KIA but make sure its compatible first, I doubt you'll do any harm with the Lucas stuff but it will lighten your wallet more than the Maxlife will, its hard to beat for a Full Synthetic fluid that seems to work everywhere.

I do use the Lucas P/S and trans additive, love the stuff and have seen it work some pretty magic on worn P/S systems and older A/T trans. My old transmission guy swears by it, he won't warrant one of his trans unless you put a bottle in.


More proof that being a good mechanic doesn't equate to knowing anything about oil.
Lucas makes products that thicken the existing fluid because as we all know from the voa posted here non of their products(fuel treatment excluded) are additized
So if thickening the fluid fixes the issue then great,but it dilutes the add pack,which isn't great.
The fuel treatment has worked for me in some apps,and done nothing in others. I'll stick to my acetone/tc-w3 frankenbrew. It always works and ends up cheaper per tank.
 
We know that lubricants are a mixture of base oil and a package of additives from a chemical company, right?

Some of the additive makers produce additive packages to create a near-universal ATF. Any oil blender can buy it and mix up their own. It looks like Lucas, among many others, has done exactly that. In addition to their lube "improvement" products, Lucas makes several regular lubes. If the price on this Lucas stuff is the same as any other product that is "recommended" ('cuz it is not approved by the equipment maker) for your car, get the Lucas. If it costs anything extra, pass.

Here's the data sheet for the power steering juice:
http://www.lucasoil.com/images/medialibrary/PowerSteeringFluid wCondtnr.pdf
It is probably OK but likely overpriced. My preference would be either the OEM recommended fluid or Lubegard power steering fluid.
 
Thanks, I emailed Lucas about the power steering fluid and they said its only good up to psf II...sigh...I wish I could have found that on their website but luckily I only replaced about 1 3/4 ounces of fluid so I guess I'll just try to do a complete drain and fill soon....but thanks for info on transmission fluid, I'm going to see how ATF compares to maxlifes ATF on price and buy the cheaper of the two, do you know who makes a power steering fluid that I can use?
 
UPDATE: I had to go to the Kia dealership to buy the PSF4 and they asked me what I needed it for and I said I was replacing my current fluid for maintenance purposes and they gave me the most bizarre look and said that they don't even do that at the shop anymore. They no longer have the machines to flush and fill Kia's because "you shouldn't have too" Atleast when it comes to power steering. I told them I'll take it for topping off my fluid either way or goes. Anyway I went home and sucked out what I could and it was red. This leads me to assume that it had ATF in it from the Hyundai dealership I bought it from....the psf4 is like a clean gray color, hard to explain, but I replaced what I could suck out and topped it off and everything seems fine. I will also be going with Maxlife transmission fluid because it's 7$ a quart compared to Lucas's 12$ a quart. The power steering fluid was 10$ for a 12oz bottle at the dealership.
 
Originally Posted By: Ga129
http://www.lucasoil.com/images/medialibrary/1281983419411.pdf

They claim to meet the standards my car requires, should i still go with something else?


They can claim to meet any standards they want too , being manufacturer certified is completely different. I personally just stay away from all Lucas products , they are way overpriced for the garbage they put into those bottles. Properly spec'd fluids are always the better choice in my opinion.
 
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