What is the Primary difference between

[BOBISTHEOILGUY]

Ford, Chrysler, and GM automatic transmission fluids?

thought maybe since you all tore through that last question today I'd add a second one. This question may not be completely up to date for the answer but lets see where it takes us.

 

[OneQuartLow]

Bob, are you looking for detail? All I know is that their friction properties are different. The sticky scale used to be Dexron -> 7176 -> Type F, with Type F being the shift-kit in a bottle.

I spoke to an oil sales rep recently and ATF came up. He told of driving his delivery route on varying mixtures of hydraulic fluid & 0W30 motor oil in place of ATF +3/+4 in his Dakota. My ignorance was screaming "tran$mi$$ion failure!" but he seemed to be doing okay with highway driving.

Beyond the sticky scale ATF is magic to me. I might be brave enough to firm up shifts in an old 727 by blending in Type F but I wouldn't be comfortable doing that with any '85+ design. Too many stories of automatic shift controls becoming confused and killing the clutches.

I'm hoping for some good contributions on this one, but feel free to nuke this post if you'd like to stick with test answer format.

David

 

[BOBISTHEOILGUY]

No way david.. Any attempt is better than none IMO. Hopefully more will start to try and share in these but I don't see much participation so it may eventually die out but in the mean time we'll see.



The quoted answer to this question is..

The original Ford fluid (pre-1979 vehicles) contained no friction modifier. Current Ford (Mercon) and GM (DexronIII) contain friction modifiers. Chrysler Mopar 7176 (now ATF+3) is formulated to be compatible with friction plate materials in Chrysler transmissions. The newest Ford Type B is semi-synthetic.