Maxlife ATF or Mercon V for P/S fluid?

[mercuryblues]

Hello everyone,

Hope you are all having a great weekend. I want to change the power steering fluid on my '01 Grand Marquis. Now there's no leaks as the P/S reservoir always stays full, but I want to use the turkey baster method (the car has 178k miles and I don't want to risk an age/deterioration related problem by disconnecting hoses).

Now I'm wondering whether to use Mercon V (now recommended by Ford) or the Valvoline Maxlife since it has the seal conditioners (a Dexron III/Mercon product). Of course the original spec was for Dexron III/Mercon. Would anyone be able to make a suggestion on which one to pick between the two and how many quarts should I get? Two?

Thanks very much everyone.

 

[ET16]

One quart should be fine. Don't go Dex III/Merc. The other two give better performance.

 

[PandaBear]

Unless you have a Honda I don't think there's much difference between Dex III / Merc vs Mercon V for PS, go with whatever you have in your stash or left over and call it a day. It is just hydraulic and either should be enough. Mercon V would be thinner than DexIII/Merc type fluid.

 

[Trav]

In Ford PS systems almost anything works well, i like Mobil 1 ATF but you cant go wrong with any Mercon V spec fluid.

These Ford systems have a habit of getting pump whine after changing the fluid regardless of the method used, the fix is a simple one. Post back if this happens.

 

[Whimsey]

Originally Posted By: Trav
In Ford PS systems almost anything works well, i like Mobil 1 ATF but you cant go wrong with any Mercon V spec fluid.

These Ford systems have a habit of getting pump whine after changing the fluid regardless of the method used, the fix is a simple one. Post back if this happens.


Trav this happened to me with my 2002 F-150. It started after I turkey based with Mobil 1 ATF. It comes and goes and varies in whine. It's driving me crazy! Let me in on the "simple" fix, please! Thanks!

Whimsey

 

[Trav]

I will look for my little stopper set up and take a pic.
The fix is to get a rubber stopper from the hardware store about 1/2" larger than the fill opening, put a piece of hard plastic tubing through it ( i drilled a hole and cut the tip of the tubing on an angle and used some silicon grease to get it through) then hook a Mityvac to it.

I used a hard plastic tube with an O.D. that would fit snug in the plastic Mityvac tubing and connected it to Mityvac without the fluid container.

Once the tool is made and pushed snugly into the fill hole start the engine and pull enough vacuum till the pump starts whining, back off the vacuum slightly and let the engine run 10 min.

With the engine off pull as much vacuum as possible and just leave it for a few hours or even overnight.
The air will come out and the whine will disappear.

As long as you have a Mityvac type pump the cost is under a buck.

I have used this method lots of times on noisy units and its stopped the whining on every one of them, mostly Fords.

Check the vacuum often as it will drop as the air comes out of the system.

 

[CharBaby]

Originally Posted By: mercuryblues
Hello everyone,

Hope you are all having a great weekend. I want to change the power steering fluid on my '01 Grand Marquis. Now there's no leaks as the P/S reservoir always stays full, but I want to use the turkey baster method (the car has 178k miles and I don't want to risk an age/deterioration related problem by disconnecting hoses).

Now I'm wondering whether to use Mercon V (now recommended by Ford) or the Valvoline Maxlife since it has the seal conditioners (a Dexron III/Mercon product). Of course the original spec was for Dexron III/Mercon. Would anyone be able to make a suggestion on which one to pick between the two and how many quarts should I get? Two?

Thanks very much everyone.


Either will work fine in your P/S system. If you have any suspected leaks, use the MaxLife.
Originally Posted By: Whimsey
Originally Posted By: Trav
In Ford PS systems almost anything works well, i like Mobil 1 ATF but you cant go wrong with any Mercon V spec fluid.

These Ford systems have a habit of getting pump whine after changing the fluid regardless of the method used, the fix is a simple one. Post back if this happens.


Trav this happened to me with my 2002 F-150. It started after I turkey based with Mobil 1 ATF. It comes and goes and varies in whine. It's driving me crazy! Let me in on the "simple" fix, please! Thanks!

Whimsey



I have used Honda P/S Fluid in many non-Honda units to cure moans/groans and other noises. Won't hurt anything, give it a try...Or the LubeGard equivolent!