I was in Wal-Mart a couple of days to get an FL820S, and I also checked out their ATF selection:
a) Supertech (their house brand) Mercon / Dexron III is still available
b) Castrol had a "Universal ATF" that looked very much like Mercon / Dexron III, except I guess they can't call it that way. (didn't read all the fine print because it was too fine for me without my reading glasses, however )

 

Does that fluid meet Ford's now expired specs for MERCON? Or does the oil manufacturer have some universal fluid that they say is for use where MERCON was specified? There could be a big difference. They could have some other type of fluid that they feel is close enough to MERCON that they decided to use it as a MERCON replacement. Will it work well in the trans? Will it damage it? Who has done testing to prove one way or the other?

When Ford was licensing companies to make MERCON Ford tested the fluids before issuing the license. They still do that testing for MERCON V fluids. They don't do it for MERCON because there is no more MERCON licensed fluids.

If you use it you might be doing the compatibility testing on your trans.

 

Chevron has MD-3 that is also the result of no more Mercon or Dexron III licensing. Companies like BP (Castrol) and Chevron I think can be trusted to make these "universal" fluids to the same testing specs as the old licenses required. Ford and GM have put the oil companies and vehicle owners in a bind here, by essentially dropping support for vehicles no longer under warranty.

Jim

 

I don't see it as a bind at all. Ford has changed MERCON V to be compatible with transmissions that used to use MERCON.

 

Unfortunately, there is no practical way to communicate that fact to owners.

Jim

 

I did read most of the fine print on it, and the claim is: "Dexron III/Mercon compatibility". Which, presumably means Dexron III/Mercon that can no longer be sold under that label.

 

As already stated, Chevron still makes MD-3 (Merc/Dex-III specific) and that's a good thing because it was always one of the DexIII/Merc standouts, great ATF.

 

You can use Merc V, its backwards compatible, just as SJ oils are backwards compatible with older specs. No need to look for Merc III specific.

 

Current Merc V's are backwards compatible, initially they were not. I have to wonder what was compromised in order to achieve this, most newer Merc V fluids have unimpressive product data stats.

 

Here is a full text TSB on the fluid change.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/tsb/full...hp?tsb=06-14-4

Maybe noting the fluids Ford part number, on the back of the tranny fluid bottles label, at the botom, will help some with the confusion.

Origional Mercon recipe (which is no longer in production) is XT-2-QDX

Origional Mercon-V recipe is XT-5-QMC

New recipe Mercon-V/Mercon, dual use fluid is XT-5-QM

So it may not be good practice to mix any of the old recipe fluids, with the new recipe dual use Mercon-V/Mercon XT-5-QM.

I've been using the new dual use Mercon-V/Mercon XT-5-QM in my 99 Ranger 5R55E tranny for about a year & a half, with no problems.

I did a pan drop, filter change & full fluid pump out, as I usually do at service time.

Haven't tried the new dual use fluid in my 94 Taurus AXODE tranny yet (it has Mercon XT-2-QDX specified) & haven't found anyone to date thats using it in older auto trannies, so I don't yet have any inputs on how older auto trannies will do on the new dual use fluid recipe.