Tranny flush/change again? Synth? Help?

[Jester1994]

Hey guys, I was jus tlooking for sme opinions and expert knowledge in this area. I haven't changed my tranny fluid myself before, however, I had my shop do it when I bought my Explorer at 62k, in July of 2002. So it's been almost 2.5 years and 30k miles (it's now at 92k). I want to switch over to synthetic tranny fluid. I wanted to know what you all recommend for the bet course of action and type of tranny fluid flush etc. I ahve read some posts about power flushing, etc. I think I will do it myself in the next few weekends and wantd to know what the bet way to do it for theis explorer was, with only one previous tranny fluid change that I know of. SHould I jsut do a straight up fluid change? Or allow all of the fluid and new to run through the system and change it again? Let me know what you all think!

Thanks!

 

[Critical_Level2]

What kind of trans fluid does it need. Mercon V is a synthetic trans fluid, but I am not sure what year ford started using it.

 

[Jester1994]

I would think Mercon V, but I haven't looked at details like that yet. I am just wondering what other peopl ein my similar situation have done, or what you guys would recommend I do.

 

[aldive]

The following is how I flush my tranny....

I disconnected the "to transmission" hose from my remote filter housing. I plugged and clamped the disconnected line and added and hose clamped a 6 ft length of 3/8? line to the housing. The other end went into a calibrated water jug ( 1 gal size ).

We used 15 quarts of Amsoil ATF.

After the flush/fill was completed, I added a new K & N filter to the housing and reattached the hoses.

The procedure took my son and I about 20 minutes to complete. There was no mess since we were well prepared for the flush; nary a drop was spilled.

 

[Jester1994]

So the suction replaces all of your fluid for you? What's the link to that detailed thread? I'd like to try that since it seems like it would work well, thanks Aldive.

 

[Opera House]

The transmission won't suck fluid in. You have to pour new fluid in as the engine is running or pump out a couple of quarts and stop the engine to refill and repeat. The transmission will easily hold a couple extra quarts at idle. This will allow you to pump out three quarts without running the pump dry.

 

[Jester1994]

Is this the best way to get out most or all of the old fluid? and any particles that would be in there? What about the filter?

 

[Opera House]

You never get out all the old fluid. You are mixing new with old. With 15 quarts, you get about 80% new fluid. No matter what method you use! Yes, removing particles is more important than new fluid. You should always drop the pan first. Whatever is in the pan, there is probably twice as much still stuck in the transmission. Any new fluid will loosen that up. I wouldn't suspect that to be a problem in your case. I bought a vehicle with over 100K and really nasty fluid. Dropped the pan four times and each time there was a lot of sediment, but it finally cleaned up. What you do really depends on what you find in the pan.

 

[Jester1994]

So what type of synthetic tranny fluid do you guys recommend? That is the reason I want to do the tranny fluid change, so I can replace it with synthetic, plus it is about time. Any other tips or threads I should look at?

 

[aldive]

So what type of synthetic tranny fluid do you guys recommend? That is the reason I want to do the tranny fluid change, so I can replace it with synthetic, plus it is about time. Any other tips or threads I should look at?

I have used both Mobil1 and Amsoil. I currently ise Amsoil.

Good luck, you will be happy with synthetic ATF.