Should I be afraid? Lucas Trans & Amsoil

[luckycat]

A couple of days ago a friend of mine convinced me to drop the trans pan in my chevy 04 van (which as it turns out was not easily done at all, thanks gm), and replace the fluids there with about 2 quarts of amsoil atf and two of those containers of Lucas Oil trans "stop leak" (about 1g total). After that I did a search on the web for lucas oil, found this site and the testing done on lucas oil additives and foaming. I'm not clear if this would apply also to the lucas oil trans additives...

In any event, any experience with this combination? Should I replace my fluids again to try to get rid of the lucas in favor of just amsoil? BTW my neighbor has a great deal of experience with vans like this, and in fact has one with almost 3/4 of a million miles; he swears by this combination.

 

[GROUCHO MARX]

He has good experience so that's a plus. Did you have a leak?

 

[Ken2]

I think you're OK with the Lucas stuff
http://www.lucasoil.com/images/medialibrary/trans_fix.pdf

I'd do a transmission cleaning with Auto-Rx, then a complete fluid flush and renewal with just a top quality ATF...I prefer a synthetic. Amsoil ATF is very good, as are Mobil 1, Schaeffer, Red Line, and Royal Purple. No snake oil following the new fluid, please.


Ken

 

[Strjock81]

On the recommendation of the guy at the local Napa store I put the Lucas Trans Fix stuff in my 4R100 trans in my 99 Ford Dually w/Powerstroke. He said he swore by all Lucas products and that this would make my trans last longer.

A few days later the trans failed catastrophically with very little warning. I felt it slip a couple times and was trying to get home--I went to pass a guy going 45 on the highway and when it kicked down a gear it made this horrific noise and it felt like I ran over a buffalo or some other large mammal, the 8000# truck lurched and bucked so bad. When I got pulled off the road it wouldn't so much as move an inch in any gear. Upon disassembly the trans was in such bad shape the only real option was to redo all the guts or put in a factory rebuilt from Ford. The factory rebuilt was cheaper and we went that way--$3200 later she was back on the road.

Did the Lucas cause it? I really have no proof, but the trans had only 63K easy miles on it, had shown no problems or indications of issues in the past, and had only had Mobil 1 ATF during most of its life. The Lucas may not have anything to do with it, but the proximity of putting it in to catastrophic failure was too close in my mind to be mere coincidence. Close enough that I know it will be going nowhere near any of my trannies in the future. Hope it works out well for you and that my experience was an isolated one. I used the oil stabilizer in it too for a while with no problems but stopped after finding this site.

 

[luckycat]

quote:

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Originally posted by GROUCHO MARX:
He has good experience so that's a plus. Did you have a leak?

---

Nope, no leak...he just suggested it in conjunction with the amsoil.

 

[luckycat]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Strjock81:
On the recommendation of the guy at the local Napa store I put the Lucas Trans Fix stuff in my 4R100 trans in my 99 Ford Dually w/Powerstroke. He said he swore by all Lucas products and that this would make my trans last longer.

A few days later the trans failed catastrophically with very little warning. I felt it slip a couple times and was trying to get home--I went to pass a guy going 45 on the highway and when it kicked down a gear it made this horrific noise and it felt like I ran over a buffalo or some other large mammal, the 8000# truck lurched and bucked so bad. When I got pulled off the road it wouldn't so much as move an inch in any gear. Upon disassembly the trans was in such bad shape the only real option was to redo all the guts or put in a factory rebuilt from Ford. The factory rebuilt was cheaper and we went that way--$3200 later she was back on the road.

Did the Lucas cause it? I really have no proof, but the trans had only 63K easy miles on it, had shown no problems or indications of issues in the past, and had only had Mobil 1 ATF during most of its life. The Lucas may not have anything to do with it, but the proximity of putting it in to catastrophic failure was too close in my mind to be mere coincidence. Close enough that I know it will be going nowhere near any of my trannies in the future. Hope it works out well for you and that my experience was an isolated one. I used the oil stabilizer in it too for a while with no problems but stopped after finding this site.

---

Now THAT is a scary story. Right after the change we went on a 3-4 hour trip, no issues at all, fortunately, and everything seems to be working well.

 

[luckycat]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ken2:
I think you're OK with the Lucas stuff
http://www.lucasoil.com/images/medialibrary/trans_fix.pdf

I'd do a transmission cleaning with Auto-Rx, then a complete fluid flush and renewal with just a top quality ATF...I prefer a synthetic. Amsoil ATF is very good, as are Mobil 1, Schaeffer, Red Line, and Royal Purple. No snake oil following the new fluid, please.


Ken

---

So in your mind Lucas Oil is not "snake oil" I hope.

 

[porcupine73]

I ran that Lucas goop with Mobil1 syn ATF for about 15k miles in a 1996 Subaru 2.2L auto; didn't cause any problems. Later switched to Amsoil ATF without the goop; like shift quality better.

 

[Mr Nice]

If it was my car/truck.........I would *ONLY* do ATF drain & refills with a quality ATF.

 

[oilboy123]

Yah no additives in my trans. Just fluid, unless I am doing an RX run.

 

[Brett Miller]

I would never use anything in an auto trans except quality ATF. If it doesn't work with Amsoil ATF, Lucas certainly isn't going to fix it. Amsoil is one of the best available.

 

[Steelers]

Drain and fill with correct fluid.

Only additive I'd use is Lubegard if I was experiencing the infamous Ford Shudder or something similar.

Sythetics provide greater resistance to oxidation may improve the shift quality of the vehicle.

 

[BlazerLT]

quote:

---

Originally posted by luckycat:

quote:

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Originally posted by GROUCHO MARX:
He has good experience so that's a plus. Did you have a leak?

---

Nope, no leak...he just suggested it in conjunction with the amsoil.

---

I suggest you do a little more research yourself before listening to you friends ill advice again.

It is like putting stop leak in a leak free cooling system.

What is the point........

I suggest you get the fluid completely changed now with a T-tech replacement system ASAP or you are asking for trouble.

 

[kool_zx3]

I have been using around a 1/4 of a bottle to half of lucas tranny fix which is not just a stop leak product by the way in my auto after i did a fluid change and everything is well.... No problems and it shifts and runs better then it use to... My tempo has it also and stills runs like a top.

 

[Nebraskan]

My wifes car has over 200,000 miles on it and I had the transmission fluid and filter changed at about 195,000 miles. Then we went on a trip back west. Got great gas mileage (about 34.6mpg avg.)and no transmission problems.

However, after seeing what the oil additive did on a test on this site, it makes me wonder if adding it to a transmission also makes it more prone to foaming?

I'm now just thinking of buying the Amsoil ATF and letting it go at that. To do a complete fluid change is there something that needs to be done besides getting all the fluid out (in the pan)?

Perhaps changing fluid & filter and then in about 1 month, changing fluid again, using the same Amsoil fluid? Looks like that way it would be nearly ALL Amsoil.

Vern