Info on, 98 X Auto Transmission fluid change

[Aussie Explorer]

I will soon be changing my transmission fluid on the 5R55E I was going to use Mercron V, Due to my phobia of Automatic transmissions I was not keen on changing the type of fluid to another brand, till I went down to ford to buy it at a cost of $17.80 per Litre, so for 10 litres= call it $180 with a discount!!! :thumbdwn:
So I am going to use Penrite Fully synthetic ATF, which meets Mercron V approval, You probably haven’t herd of them in the U.S but Penrite makes premium oil’s for Classic and Hi-Pro-Formance car’s and is also widely used in Drag Racing, so I feel confident using the product and at $45 Per 4 litres a lot more reasonable.

So My Question. The Explorer currently has 120,000k’s (75,000Miles) do you all think it is absolutely necessary to do a filter change at this time, as dropping the pan is messy and a real PITA. My plan was to do a filter change at 150,000k’s.

So the only other problem is the transmission holds 9.66 Litres and I can only get the penrite product in 4 Litre containers or a 20Litre drum. So do I Just leave 1.66 litres of the old fluid in or do I spend a extra $45 and buy 12 Litres of fluid and have some left over??

Oh and I plan to use the pump 1 Litre out then shut engine down and pour 1 litre of new ATF back in method, is this a good method do I risk damaging the transmission doing this and is there a better way to do it??

Sorry about all the questions but I have a little bit of a phobia of auto transmissions, I only touch them if I have to.

 

[Glacier991]

I'd buy 12 and do the pump out method... and I disagree that you need to start and stop at each quart... you can do it stopping only once or twice if you mark a 5 gallon container and have someone at the ignition switch as you pour in as you pump out.

As for the filter, your call. In a perfect world it would be nice to replace the filter now. How does your old fluid look? If it's darkish (really darkish) I'd be more inclined to change the filter. If it looks pretty good, you can probably wait. Those are my thoughts anyway

 

[Aussie Explorer]

Cool thanks

The old fluid still look’s Ok and does not smell burnt so I think I will do the filter some other time.

I have a few days’ to think about it, well I wait for the ATF fluid to be ordered in, not many auto shop’s stock this ATF fluid on the shelf, so you need to order it in.

 

[aldive]

I use about 15 quarts when flushing mine.

 

[Glacier991]

Al has a point, there is some waste in the overlap.