Seems to be a trend among all Asian (European, too?) manufacturers to specify their own proprietary fluids, now. Mitsubishi and Hyundai/Kia specify the Mitsubishi SP-III ATF. (Mitsubishi hasn't released the formula or offered to sell licenses, either, though somebody in the U.S. is making it for Hyundai/Kia.) I emailed Lubegard to clarify their position on the SP-III issue in advance of my 2003 Sonata's first ATF change at year's end. Lubegard's response was to use Mobil 1 ATF with the recommended dose of Lubegard Platinum. Given my past experience with using Lubegard HFM in my '96 Accord, I have no doubt that it would work, but, frankly, it'll be cheaper to just buy 8 quarts of SP-III at my local Kia dealer. (They're a buck cheaper/qt. for the same part number than my Hyundai dealer - and closer!.
) Hyundai recommends 105,000 mile ATF changes, or at 30,000 miles for "severe service". I'd still like to get the factory-fill fluid out no later than 15,000 miles, though, then maybe every 20,000 miles thereafter.
I suspect the Asian proprietary ATFs are very, very highly friction modified and rely on some percentage of Group-III base stocks. I just wonder how may of them are actually compatible with each other. Be a nice experiment for
someone else to try...
