Why would you risk any damage? The trans requires MERCON, and this is MERCON. Synthetic or dino MERCON is MERCON, and will be fine in the 4R100.

 

I bought a few quarts from the dealer since I had a question of the MERCON/DEXRON III labeling. The part# is XT-2-QDX as specified in the owners maual. Here is the bottle pic just so you can see that the avilability of the ATF fluid at the parts store is the same as labeled.

 

This thread made me review my service records....and Ford put 6 quarts of Mercon V in when i had my 30K service done. Been battling with them all morning. The service writer went so far as to tell me that my manual could have a misprint. Guess those large, bold, black letters in the OM that state not to mix fluids are a misprint as well. Waiting to hear from Ford Customer Service for a resolution.

 

It's always better to do your own maintenance not only for reasons like this, but for the simple fact that you will always take better care of your vehicle than someone else....in addition to saving money in the process.

 

i agree. other then the fact that some people sould never have even a screw driver in their hands. i have heard some amazing stories about people doing their own service. ie. some lady changed her own oil and obviously didnt have a clue, she drained the oil and added enough oil to were she could visually see it filled to where the top of the cap is....must have been 12+ quarts (4cyl) needless to say she had it towed in because it wouldnt start. and thought it was warrenty.. i have also had people bring their cars in with 30k miles on them and ask "what is an oil change" or "i didnt do my maintence because i thought it should be warrenty" or the classic "i added stop leak to my radiator because it was cracked at the neck and overheated it - warrenty will replace my motor right?" when the radiator would have been warrenty in the first place. here is the best example, see picture



this is from a semi, the email i got about it stated that the driver was going down a mountain pass and grabbed the wrong gear, he was asking for warrenty help - go figure

 

I work at a ford dealer in parts putting merc 5 in a 4r100 is a no no.

 

The dealer told me they could only get mercon in quarts, not drums.

I hate to think it, but maybe it costs more for mercon, and they're willing to take the risk that nothing will happen to the transmission, or if it does cause damage the customer won't know why.

 

Show them the pic I placed in this thread. Also not that the part numbers for Mercon are:
XT-2-QDX Quarts
XT-2-DDX Drums

The Q and D are the quantity amount designators.

 

After sweating for about two hours I found my work order for my Ford they used the correct fluid. Thank God I have had two flushes already it could have been a waste plus all the miles I have put on. This is a great site with a wealth of info.


2000 sdcc5.4

 

The dealer is flushing mine tomorrow with the correct fluid. I'm glad I haven't driven mine much since it was done. Hopefully no damage has been done.

 

Sorry about resurrecting such an old post but it has some good discussion in it.

I HAD an appointment tomorrow morning to take my truck to a shop to get a BG system trans flush done. Just out of curiosity I gave them a call earlier this morning to find out what kind of fluid they planned on putting back in it. He didn't know right off hand so he said he'd have to call me back.

While I waited for his call I did some research.

First thing I did was called 3 different tranny shops in my area and all three of them stated that they would use MERCON V. So next I called a local Ford dealer and talked to the shop foreman there that I know and he indicated to me what a lot of you are saying....NEVER USE MERCON V IN THE 4R100. A guy at one of the tranny shops said that if you have a yellow dipstick it should say MERCON V on it and I "politely" corrected him and said that it only has MERCON on it.

Even the link that is above that was originally posted in this thread takes you to a Ford (pdf) document that shows MERCON V listed for the 4R100. What the.............??????

BTW, the shop I had the appointment with called me back and my suspicions were correct, they planned on using MERCON V. Therefore, before our conversation was finished I cancelled my appointment because I don't want someone working on my truck that was going to put the wrong fluid in it.

Why so much conflicting information? WHAT THE HELL GIVES!!!

 

I just looked at this yesterday. There was a notice about using mercon V in transmissions from ford that corresponds to the chart in the PDF above. I will lookup the info again and pass it along. I have had no trouble using the V in the 4r100 and have even found it beneficial in trucks with converter shudder. It does exist, even if it has not come up on here before! My own personal OBS truck suffered from this.

However, I know Mark K. states in his writeup to not use MV in the 4r100. That is about as official as I would consider. Everything else is just personal opinion of that particular shop, dealer or otherwise. I do know several trans shops that refill with MV and have no ill effects.

 

Here is a paragraph taken directly from TSB 06-14-4:

ACTION:
Beginning immediately all automatic transmission / transaxle applications requiring MERCON® can now be serviced using MERCON® V or MERCON® Automatic Transmission Fluid or dual usage fluids labeled MERCON® / MERCON® V. After July 1, 2007, MERCON® Automatic Transmission Fluid will no longer be manufactured, therefore, availability of this fluid will only continue for however long it takes to deplete what remains in inventory.


So according to this TSB, MERCON V is ok to use in the 4R100. If that's the case then why did a shop foreman at a Ford dealer tell me that MERCON V in a 4R100 is a big no-no.

If MERCON was supposed to be no longer manufactured after July 1, 2007 then why can you still get it from Ford? You mean to tell me that they had that much stockpiled.

 

That's outdated info. My write up does say that, but it was written several years ago.

Since then Ford has discontinued MERCON. You can still find it, but it is slowly going to disappear. They also changed MERCON V to make it compatible with all transmissions that used MERCON, including the 4R100. I would be using MERCON V in my 4R100, except I still have several gallons of MERCON in my garage.

 

Because he doesn't read the info the Ford sends him, or he thinks he knows more than the people that have real data on this. I can't tell which, but either way, he's wrong.

I think it's also important to note that a shop foreman at a dealer (in fact EVERYONE at a dealer) does not work for Ford. They work for an independant company that owns a Ford franchise. Ford can't control what they say and do, they can only send information. It's up to the dealers to decide if they are going to listen.