Did a service on a 2005 F450 yesterday including 3 injectors, Dummy Plugs and a trans service.

The owner didn't want to spend the extra $$$ for Mercon SP or LV and opted for Maxlife ATF.

Now we know Maxlife ATF has claimed LV compatibility for a while now. Here is a pic I had taken sometime back:



Even though Mark K has stated he was ok with Maxlife being used in a Torqshift and Valvoline claims LV/SP compatibility, I couldn't bring myself to use it in my own truck.

So, I figured I would shoot Valvoline an email asking how it was good with Mercon SP, LV and Mercon V.


--------------------------------------------------------------

Customer Name: Josh

Customer Phone Number:

Incident Description:

Entered on 02/22/2015 at 16:04:06 EST (GMT-0500) by feedback@valvoline.com:

First Name: Josh
Last Name:
Address:
City:
State: CO
Zip:
Country: United States
Email: ----------------------
feedback type: I have a question/comment about a product

Comments:

Hello,

I have known sometime that Maxlife ATF is compatible with Mercon LV and SP. In Ford SP/LV applications, specifically the Super Duty Torqshift transmission, the use of Mercon V will destroy the solenoids within a short time.

How is Maxlife ATF able to be both Mercon V and SP/LV compatible?

In the Powerstroke community a diligent effort is made to only use SP or LV and avoid Mercon V.

It's tempting to use Maxlife ATF in that application for it's availability and price versus the scarcity of Mercon SP or elevated price of LV.

Thanks

Josh



Good afternoon Josh, thank you for contacting Valvoline Product Support.



When evaluating specifications for our Valvoline MaxLife ATF, heavy testing takes place against the manufacturer standards. With some of these tests/trials taking up to 2 years to process, we ensure our products will not only meet the manufacturer specification but exceed it on the testing parameters.



Mercon LV replaced the Mercon SP, which replaced the Mercon V. Mercon V is an older standard by Ford which cannot meet the new SP/LV specifications. Each time Ford has released a new ATF standard, we put our product back into testing before we update the labels with newer specifications. The Valvoline MaxLife ATF will cover all iterations of Mercon: Mercon, Mercon V, Mercon SP, and Mercon LV.



If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us via phone at 800 TEAM VAL or by email at valsupport@ashland.com for assistance.



Thank you and have a great day.

Erik

Valvoline Product Support

---------------------------------------------------------


Hmmmm..... point to consider from their response.

Mercon V is a current spec and not an "old" standard nor does SP or LV replace Mercon V in any application.

Josh

 

So if I've got this right from the answer they gave you and Maxlife is forward and backward compatible MerconV<->SP<->LV. I can use it in my Expedition, or for that matter could put LV in the Expedition...

Not buyin' it. I thought I was stepping out by putting LV in the Torqshift

For the heck of it I went out to O'Reilly's since the Ford LV was $5.99/qt when I bought it. Now it is $7.49, as is SP, and Mercon V is a buck less.

Then they have the "choose your trans fluid that is vehicle specific" option, so I put in both the F350 and the Expedition. They both came back without ANY of the Ford fluids shown, but both showed Maxlife and the Castrol equivalent as the only two Ford vehicle specific correct fluids.

Oh yeah and the Maxlife is a whole $1.30 cheaper than LV or SP. Now how much did Sean say that trans was costing him?!

 

Yep, O'Reilys is $7.49 for each. Advanced Auto has LV for $7.69 and SP for $9.69

Maxlife ATF is $4.26 @ Walmart.

I'm fairly familiar with Nissan transmissions and they have their own spec of Matic-D, Matic-J (now called S), Matic-K. All 3 are very specific to what trans they get and even Nissan carries all 3 seperate. Most aftermarket fluids besides Maxlife which claims all 3 Nissan, but also claims Matic-S, at least claim to do Matic-D and Matic-J.

Ok.

In looking at the different manufacturer specs, Like Matic-D and Toyota III and Ford LV. I would be inclined to think Maxlife is more aimed at those specs more than Mercon V, Dexron III


As for random transmission failures, stuff happens.

And to throw a wrench into things there are a lot of guys running Mercon V over on .ORG.

And imagine all the Torqshifts out there that have done hot-flushes at a dealer or quicklube running Mercon V.

Josh

 

SP is 5.79 a qt at AutoNation WBL (for 12 qts). It is $6.35 at dieselfiltersonline.com
LV is 4.71 a qt at AutoNation WBL (for 12 qts). It is $5.47 at dieselfiltersonline.com

Shipping can be very reasonable from both places (free at dieselfiltersonline if purchase over $250)

 

FWIW the specs for both Maxlife and Motorcraft LV are darn near identical.

http://www.valvoline.com/pdf/maxlife_atf.pdf

https://www.fcsdchemicalsandlubrican...ERCON%20LV.pdf

And Motorcraft SP

https://www.fcsdchemicalsandlubrican...ERCON%20sp.pdf

Funny.... LV is supposed to be Low Viscosity, but SP is actually thinner.

All are thinner and have higher flash point than Mercon V

https://www.fcsdchemicalsandlubrican...MERCON%20V.pdf

Josh

 

Josh, you are a wealth of information,how do you find all this stuff much less the time to do it.......but I'm glad you can cause I can't.........saves me the headache

 

My opinion is if the customer can't afford SP,,, he can't afford to service the tranny.

 

As a mid to high mileage driver (35K miles per year) I always keep in the back of my mind that there are users that post their experiences based on their 5k -10k miles per year and swear something they are doing is working fine. If something will cause a problem after 25K miles then for some of these folk that could be years and not be a big deal. For some one like me that could be 8 or 9 months. I'll stick with the right stuff thanks.

One other thing I see is guys with fancy aftermarket exhausts, rims, large tires, lifts, tuners, bumpers, winches, etc, etc, etc ... spending hours grappling with the decision on whether or not to pay and extra $1 per quart on some thing that is so important to the health of a $3k transmission or a $8k engine

But I love this website and I'm always one to learn and improve. Not knocking anyone just always grinning when I see the irony / dichotomy / duplexity ... what ever the right word is

 

Yep, experience the strange penny pinching all the time.

I have used LV since 2012.

With this particular F450 (280k miles), it will experience an addional 30k miles and one more flush before the end of the year.

Owner isn't sure what is in it, could have been Mercon V, SP or LV or some other variety of Mercon/Dexron.

 

Well......I've had it in my trans since August 2013. Basically 18 months & 30k miles. No issues. Still working just fine. Going to dump the fluid in the pan & replace soon. Since the local O'Reileys carries LV now, I'm not sure if I'll go with LV or the Maxlife.

For your reading pleasure....https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...t-pan-and.html

BTW, it seems to me that the customer service rep who answered Josh's question has very little knowledge about our transmissions, SP, LV or V. The answer is basically a canned response.

 

LOL



One thing is for sure, Mark heavily defended Maxlife.

Josh

 

Damn, another decision dilemma! 10K miles ago, I listened to a parts counter guy (company name not mentioned to protect the innocent or ignorant; your choice) rant at me for about 5 minutes that I didn't need SP. Finally I said, "Look your selling and I'm buying, either bring me the SP and take my money or Have A Great Day!" My mechanic did a true hot flush, changed fluid/filter and all is well for 20K more. But now, if Mark heavily defended MaxLife, the decision is ON for the next change!

 

Canned response for sure. What was truly wrong was the statement SP replaced Mercon V.

Josh

 

I was up in the air on this as well but looking online I can get sp for 5 something and lv for 6 something--I'll just go with the sp online since I'll be ordering filters anyway.

 

I don't know that I HEAVILY defended MaxLife. It does have the proper rating on the bottle. I've put it in a 5R110 (after I left Ford) and it worked fine.