Ive heard that Mercon is being phased out by Ford , which leaves us using Mercon V, but our owner's manual says not to mix Mercon and Mercon V and only to use Mercon. If you go to do a tranny fluid change you are only getting out about 40% of the fluid so putting in Mercon V will mix with Mercon. I guess there will be other suppliers of Mercon/Dexron III, but Ford will be using Mercon V as far as I can tell. Maybe I should buy up a few bottles of Ford Mercon for future changes, it's cheap enough. I can't see Ford telling us that is now okay to use Mercon V when they warn against it in the owner's manual, seems odd.

 

See other posts regarding this situation. I do believe that Meercon V would be harmful. From everything I have read Mercon V is harmful. Even in the early escapes some of the tranny sticks were mislabeled and this caused problems. Surely even if they phase Mercon III out you will still be able to get it. For now it is readily available almost everywhere. Anyone else have any thoughts?

 

Some people have problems others don't. If you have problems most likely your tranny is on it's last leg. Just do a couple drain and refills with regular Mercon if you have problems. My suggestion is to install a Magnefine filter and try the Mercon V. It's recommended to do a full change out.. which would easy if you install the filter. Just put the hose in a gallon container fill it up and replace till you have it all.. 10 qts. But it's not necessary. My plan is to use M1 ATF just pulling the plug and installing a filter. Mine shifts perfectly so I don't expect any problems. Might also reset the computer after installing new fluid.

 

Well my personal experience with Mercon V has been nothing but great. My 2001 Escape has just over 100,000 miles on it and I have always used Mercon V in it.

 

In reading additional information it seems the earlier Ford Mercon V may not have been compatible with some of their transmission seals, but the newer Mercon V should be compatible. That may have been the reason for Ford's warning in our owner's manual.

My Question then becomes how do you get all of the old fluid out , seeing as we only get about 4 quarts out on each tranny fluid dump. Do you do two quick fluid dumps ?, or any other method ?.

thanks for the replies.

 

The only way that I know or have read about is the dealer method of the power flush. Keep in mind that the stealerships want a fortune to do this. I gues my only suggestion is to have an independent shop do the flush. I am no mechanic but I think that they hook a machine up to the tranny lines and flush it that way. Hope this helps>??>??