Originally Posted By: Ken2
mrsilv04,
You did not tell us the make and model of the vehicle. You did not tell us the underwriter of your extended service plan...there is no such thing as an extended warranty unless it was issued by the factory for a series of failures that would be a PR debacle. You did not tell us who the service writer had to contact for approval to pay for your claim.
In any case, the service writer is NOT an expert on lubricants. Much of what they tell customers is pure speculation and old shadetree mechanics' tales. If there was a service bulletin issued for the steering of your make and model vehicle, we need to know that.
I'm guessing it's his '04 Silverado since he said "pickup."
My truck is a Ford, with one of the notorious Ford PS pumps. The manual says to use Mercon. I have done sporadic turkey baster changes with Super Tech Mercon V since about 40K miles. There are absolutely no issues with the PS on my truck with 103K miles, not even noise. ATF can work great in certain PS systems. If we were talking about a high end European car, I'd say follow the book. With an '04 Silverado, I'd just use ATF without a second thought personally, especially if you had good results in the past.