Fluid Change Recommendations. | Page 2 | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Fluid Change Recommendations.

There's no pro's and con's here;

If you put anything other than Mercon V in a a4ld you will kill it.

The friction material used for the clutches require the specific friction modifiers in Mercon V.

There is no proper substitute on the market.

The A4LD does infact spec Mercon fluid (a.k.a. "Dex/Merc" nowadays).

You're thinking of the 4R44E/4R55E/5R44E/5R55E series transmissions (these are the ones that require Mercon V fluid)
 






Mercon was discontinued.

Mercon V is the replacement.

Put Dex/Merc in your a4ld and it's toast.

Here's the TSB:
http://www.aa1car.com/library/ford_tsb_06144.pdf

It is specific to the type of friction materials use on the clutches.

USE ANYTHING ELSE AND IT WILL START SLIPPING AND BURN UP THE CLUTCHES!
 






Ummm...
Please tell me where in that link it says your A4LD will blow up if you put Mercon in it :confused:

The A4LD was DESIGNED to use Mercon fluid (Mercon is now known as "Dex/Merc" because Ford revoked the license for companies to use the Mercon name (as did GM for "Dextron III"). The fluid itself is still very widely available, only the names discontinued). It is not gonna blow up if you continue to put the fluid it was designed for in it. :rolleyes:

And FWIW, Ford now wants you to think Mercon V is a 100% direct replacement for Mercon, it is not (oddly in the beginning they very strongly recommended you do NOT use Mercon V for Mercon apps, it'll void the warranty, but then they changed their tune... makes you wonder really).
Mercon V does work fine in a majority of Mercon applications (seems the A4LD included, though I don't have personal experience with it), however I have seen it negatively affect the shift quality on earlier M5OD transmissions (seems it's a bit too slippery for the synchros). For M5ODs I will always continue to use Dex/Merc fluid no matter what.
 






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