When Should I Change My ATF

[John With Beastly 302]

I have a 94' Mercury Sable with a 3.0 12v with a AX4S (AXODE). I flushed the fluid and then dropped the pan and changed the Internal filter in April 08' and the odometer had 168,000. Now the odometer is at 194,000, so it has been 26,000 miles. The fluid that has been in it is Napa Premium Performance DexronIII/Mercron. Pulling the dipstick the fluid is not as light Pink as it was new but is a slightly darker pink. I had been running a Motorguard but took it off and installed a Magnafine this April.

What do you guys recommend?

 

[sangyup81]

check again at 30k

 

[chet2]

my in laws camry has 310k and he has never changed ATF...i would go another 75k unless you tow with car

 

[lewdwig]

The BITOG standard seems to be about 30k ACI.

 

[Familyguy]

Those transmissions are somewhat fragile. My folks have a 96 Sable with the 24V engine and I've changed the fluid/filter approximately every 30k. When they initially got it (inherited from a relative that passed away a long time ago), it had about 50k on it and overdrive was sometimes not engaging. The initial transmission fluid change fixed that. It's now got 165k on it and shifts smoothly.

I've used a steady diet of Walmart ST Mercon plus whatever the default filter was at the local NAPA.

Best,

 

[demarpaint]

Another vote for a 30K change.

 

[JHZR2]

yea, 30-36k is a good number, IMO. What is the manual's severe service recommendation?

 

[Iain]

Originally Posted By: John With Beastly 302
I have a 94' Mercury Sable with a 3.0 12v with a AX4S (AXODE). I flushed the fluid and then dropped the pan and changed the Internal filter in April 08' and the odometer had 168,000. Now the odometer is at 194,000, so it has been 26,000 miles. The fluid that has been in it is Napa Premium Performance DexronIII/Mercron. Pulling the dipstick the fluid is not as light Pink as it was new but is a slightly darker pink. I had been running a Motorguard but took it off and installed a Magnafine this April.

What do you guys recommend?

Wot does your owners manual say?

Manual for my 2001 Taurus AX4N indicates change every 30K miles.

 

[John With Beastly 302]

Originally Posted By: Familyguy
Those transmissions are somewhat fragile. My folks have a 96 Sable with the 24V engine and I've changed the fluid/filter approximately every 30k. When they initially got it (inherited from a relative that passed away a long time ago), it had about 50k on it and overdrive was sometimes not engaging. The initial transmission fluid change fixed that. It's now got 165k on it and shifts smoothly.

I've used a steady diet of Walmart ST Mercon plus whatever the default filter was at the local NAPA.

Best,


Ya I am a little concerned because when I had the Motorguard installed I had the Frantz Trans adapter installed also. I stopped driving the car for about a year while someone else took it over. Then once I started driving it again the trans seemed to slip when shifting. So I took off the MG which seemed to improve the slippy shifts. So was the Fluid to slick with the MG because there were hardly any particles in the oil?

The original trans was replaced with a Ford reman @ 102,000 because the 1-2 2-1 aluminum piston had cracked. Now when overdrive engages sometimes the shift is solid and other times the shift is slippy. So I don't know I just hope I didn't scerw anything up when the Motorguard was installed

 

[wiswind]

I have run the Magnefine filter in the cooler line in 2 vehicles.
I had one on my '96 FORD Windstar for years.
The Magnefine has a "nominal" filtration rating down to 30 microns, the best of the in pan filters go to about 80 microns.
So the Magnefine is a real plus.

I would also go with the 30K mile normal service, 21K miles "severe" service interval.
I used to use Mobil 1 ATF, which worked very well, and then was using Redline D4 ATF, which also worked very well.
FORD has discontinued the Mercon licensing and now recommends Mercon V in all former Mercon applications.
This recommendation REPLACES all former statements saying NOT to use Mercon V in in Mercon applications.
So, feel safe using Mercon V rated ATF.
Synthetic is a plus, better cold weather performance and better heat tolerance.

If a transmission has gone well beyond the 30K mile interval for a fluid change, the first fluid change may get darker sooner than expected as the new fluid may pick up particles left from the old fluid.
In this case, a fluid change much earlier than the 30K mile interval for that first fill would be a very good idea.

As for how to do the fluid change, I would recommend doing a "cooler line" fluid exchange.
The cooler line method is what FORD recommends for this transmission (at least in the windstar).
If you do a cooler line fluid exchange (changing ALL the fluid), you don't need to remove the pan and change the filter every time......at most every other time, but even that would be overkill with the magnafine filter in the cooler line.

Total fluid capacity for the AX4S transmission in the '96 Windstar is 12.25 quarts.
I would have a couple extra quarts on hand "just in case", spillage, drained more than you expected to, etc.

Here is a link to a series of pictures that show the cooler line fluid exchange, along with the removal of the pan and changing of the filter.
Again, I changed the filter every OTHER time, which was overkill.
I was changing the fluid once a year, which was 15K-20K miles.
Minivans are harder on their transmissions than cars are with the SAME transmission.
http://rides.webshots.com/photo/1503284711011220610kYSGCI

 

[John With Beastly 302]

I just wonder if there is a time limit also like every 3 years or 30K miles. Or do you just go off the mileage?

 

[Kestas]

Not so much time as mileage. If you don't put a lot of miles on your car, you may not want to leave it in there more than 10 years.

 

[unDummy]

30k full cooler line exchange with Mercon-V, and then every 50k after that. I see no need to pull the pan until its filter has 100k on it since you're using a Magnafine.

I usually start out a vehicle with more aggressive maintenance. As the vehicle ages, the intervals tend to extend a little.

Also note that the fluid quality has improved much over the past 20 years. Mercon-V is considerably better than a generic Dex/Merc fluid.

What are you doing with the removed Motorguard?