I own a 2000 F-150 4.2L V6 that I bought used a couple of weeks ago. I bought it from the original owner with 89,000 miles on the clock, and it is in excellent condition (obviously not abused).

However, it has the Mazda sourced M5OD tranny that is widely complained about because of its stiff or "notchy" shifting. The trans in my truck has these characteristics.

After reading hundreds of posts on four different Ford pickup sites it seems that some relief can be had my using Specialty Formulations' Synchroglide, Royal Purple's Synchromax, or Redline's D4 ATF instead of the recommeded Mercon.

I'd appreciate reading about anyone's experience with these products. (I did e-mail Specialty Formulations and Redline with my specific situation and the products shown are the ones they recommended, not MTFGlide (Specialty Formulations) or MTL (Redline).

Thanks for any opinions y'all can provide,

Bill Houston

 

I like Redline gear oils. Your profile says TX, so I would go with MTL. The reason they dont recommend it is that the viscosity is thicker than Mercon. Cold weather shifting could be a problem. My experiences are with German, not Japanese manual transmissions, but the syncro frictional issues are similar. D4 still has friction modifers for automatic bands and clutches, MTL does not.

Jim