A few questions from a new owner :)

Correct. THIS... is what you said.

"Mercon V is generally similar to Dexron 3, which is way too thick for my taste , when cold. Mercon LV is similar to Dexron 6 , which is a better fluid."

Dexron and Mercron are not similar in any way (other than color)

Do you have a manufacturer spec sheet for both... showing what additives and friction modifiers are in each type of fluid?

Mercron LV and Dexron VI may be compatible or interchangeable by aftermarket fluid manufacturers... but I suspect the factory versions are not... because aftermarket manufacturers try to make fluids "universal"

Either way...the above is not going to be compatible with Mercron V.

Yes... Mercron V is thicker... for a reason. The newer fluids are designed to work with the newer transmission designs... because the tolerances are tighter.

But hey... go for it. It's your car.
 
older ATFs are not as robust and generally end up thinner than LV fluids in service.

GM stopped stocking dexron iii and all their old transmissions are now specced for dexron vi (an lv fluid)

ford didn’t really bother and kept mercon v around. they upgraded some of their transfer cases straight from mercon to mercon lv though.

mercon has always been closely related to dexron.
 
04_Sport_LS said:
To the best of my knowledge Mercron V is full synthetic... which should hold up and work well in the transmissions it was designed for. (shrug)
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Its more about the additives, but most likely you are correct the fluid is probably synthetic now. But as i said the newer fluids are generally better formulated, so they holdup better with high temperatures. I am driving the car daily now and its smoothening up the engagement of the Drive gear, also i noticed its partly the fault of the engine ECU. When i start the car the RPM raise a bit while passing the shifter through the N , so when the car is cold the RPM jump for a split second to like 2000+ due to loss of load on the engine and after that it engages Drive , which leads to harsher engagement. Found out that , if i start the car wait for 30sec the car RPM go lower and when i get through N the spike is smaller and the engagement is better. Overall i am very happy with the car, just got myself a VCM to programs some things on it. For example remove the door bell , when the key is in the car.......its driving me crazy :)
 
You should always wait 30 seconds or longer before shifting after starting cars because they always run at higher RPM for a bit, especially when cold, watch the rpm gauge when you start it, should be under 1000 somewhere before you shift into gear, haven't driven mine in a while so i forget the exact number but just wait a while, you'll see it level out.
 
It takes about a minute or more for the engine to settle down to minimum idle... which is around 700 rpm depending on the ambient temperature.

Like I said before... any engine surge when shifting from P to R, or P to D means the shifter cable and/or range sensor needs adjustment.

Range sensor is also sometimes called the neutral ssfety switch, or backup light switch.
 
SultanGris said:
You should always wait 30 seconds or longer before shifting ...
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You certainly can wait, but there is no real reason to do so. I never did.
The sooner the engine gets a load, the sooner it warms up. The sooner it warms up, the lesser the startup wear...
 
joegr said:
You certainly can wait, but there is no real reason to do so. I never did.
The sooner the engine gets a load, the sooner it warms up. The sooner it warms up, the lesser the startup wear...
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I just don't like slamming my transmission into gear at higher than necessary RPMs, there was this kid in high school that would put it to the floor and then put it in drive so he could burn out, not trying to be that guy, lol
 
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gips said:
It's more about the additives,
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Exactly... and as they change transmission designs and pack more and more gears into a transmission... and change clutch compounds and tolerances... they change the fluid requirements and specs.

Myths of the Multivehicle ATF Fluid | Afton Chemical

This is confusion in the industry with respect to which ATF should be recommended for which transmission type. Learn about myths of the multivehicle ATF Fluid.
www.aftonchemical.com www.aftonchemical.com
 
True story...

In 1995 I bought a brand new F-150 4x4 pickup. When it came time to do a transmissiom fluid and filter change... I bought synthetic fluid... and had no issues.

A number of years later
I also ended up owning a 1993 Dodge Ramcharger.

When I went to change the fluid and filter in that transmission... I used the same synthetic fluid that I used in my F-150.

Shortly after doing that... I noticed a shudder in the Ramcharger... that only happened at highway/cruising speeds... in overdrive.

As it turned out... the TCC ( torque converter clutch ) was slipping due to fluid incompatibility.

Lesson learned. Use manufacturer recommended fluid specd for the the vehicle.

The education cost me "x" number of bottles of synthetic fluid... and "x" number of bottles of the proper fluid (Dexron compatible).
 
ajv8 said:
older ATFs are not as robust and generally end up thinner than LV fluids in service.

GM stopped stocking dexron iii and all their old transmissions are now specced for dexron vi (an lv fluid)

ford didn’t really bother and kept mercon v around. they upgraded some of their transfer cases straight from mercon to mercon lv though.

mercon has always been closely related to dexron.
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Basically almost every ATF fluid is closely based to Dexron and i am not sure why this has become a standard, but overall all manufacturers use the best fluid available on the market. To tell that GM uses a worst fluid than Ford or Toyota :) sounds ridiculous. So currently on the market the best fluid is based on Dexron VI or Mercon LV , or whatever equivalent Toyota and European manufacturers have. Its just that somehow the aftermarket fluids say compatible with Dexron ....... why ..... idk.
 
gips said:
To tell that GM uses a worst fluid than Ford or Toyota :) sounds ridiculous
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I didn't say that. My point was that whatever fluid is recommended by the vehicle manufacturer... is what should be used.

gips said:
Its just that somehow the aftermarket fluids say compatible with Dexron ....... why ..... idk.
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Exactly... AFTERMARKET fluids. Like I said (and pointed to in a link above) "universal" fluids are designed to meet MOST specs... but can't meet all. Not all transmission fluids are created equal.

Why Dexron compatible? Because GM and Chrysler use a version of (and still use) Dexron to this day. So do some foreign car manufacturers.

I think Toyota/Lexus has their own specd fluid. Depeding on which transmission is used.
 
Some new question popped up today.......i didnt even notice this for about 2 months of ownership. Basically i found out today that the side mirrors are not retractable they are fixed. This is a bit of a problem , because the car is quite wide anyway and the big mirrors make it even wider, so i could barely snug it in a small garage today. Needed 5 min to position it correctly to enter as it was 3mm from each side of the doorway. Anyway the question is simple. Are the mirrors of the version 2001+ direct fit to the gen1 cars ? They can retract and also they seem to have more features like heating and photochromatic lens, so i am really looking into a set of those , if they are a direct fit.
 
gips said:
Some new question popped up today.......i didnt even notice this for about 2 months of ownership. Basically i found out today that the side mirrors are not retractable they are fixed. This is a bit of a problem , because the car is quite wide anyway and the big mirrors make it even wider, so i could barely snug it in a small garage today. Needed 5 min to position it correctly to enter as it was 3mm from each side of the doorway. Anyway the question is simple. Are the mirrors of the version 2001+ direct fit to the gen1 cars ? They can retract and also they seem to have more features like heating and photochromatic lens, so i am really looking into a set of those , if they are a direct fit.
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02 LS owner here, with fixed mirrors. I can't be 100% certain that mirrors from 03-06 myr cars will bolt up to our 1st gens. Even if they did, you'd still have to wire up all of the features that our early cars didnt get and that's gonna be a PITA all on it's own. The LS's electrical system is very sensitive (thanks Jag), and you'll end up having random, hard to diagnose issues if you do anything short of a perfect wiring job.
 
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gips said:
Some new question popped up today.......i didnt even notice this for about 2 months of ownership. Basically i found out today that the side mirrors are not retractable they are fixed. This is a bit of a problem , because the car is quite wide anyway and the big mirrors make it even wider, so i could barely snug it in a small garage today. Needed 5 min to position it correctly to enter as it was 3mm from each side of the doorway. Anyway the question is simple. Are the mirrors of the version 2001+ direct fit to the gen1 cars ? They can retract and also they seem to have more features like heating and photochromatic lens, so i am really looking into a set of those , if they are a direct fit.
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I don't think that manual folding mirrors are a gen 2 vs gen 1 thing. I think that you could get them for either generation, they were just different option levels. My 06 had folding mirrors, but my 04 did not.
Otherwise, I think that mirrors from a gen 2 will fit your gen 1, but you would have to change the connector housings, as the gen 2 connectors have a few extra pins. Gen 2 did support auto dimming for the driver's mirror, and gen 1 did not.
 
joegr said:
I don't think that manual folding mirrors are a gen 2 vs gen 1 thing. I think that you could get them for either generation, they were just different option levels. My 06 had folding mirrors, but my 04 did not.
Otherwise, I think that mirrors from a gen 2 will fit your gen 1, but you would have to change the connector housings, as the gen 2 connectors have a few extra pins. Gen 2 did support auto dimming for the driver's mirror, and gen 1 did not.
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It could be you are right, i just ran a search in ebay and could find only folding mirrors after year 2001, so was thinking they introduced them for gen2. By looking at the pictures online they do seem compatible, but i wanted someone esle to confirm this is most likely possible.
 
I just found out that the mirrors are heated ...... so i wont replace them. I was thinking mine were not heated, so a foldable heated option was on the line, but i just found they are actually heated , so replacing only for the folding option seems unnecessary for now. However a new question popped up today. My car is always starting the headlights , when i switch the shifter to D and disengage the handbrake. Even if the headlights are in the off position. Are you cars doing the same ? I bought a VCM2 clone and the paid version of Forscan , for which i use the VMC as a passthrough adapter, but there is no option to disable the headlights from running .I am positive its an electronically controlled option , because they are connected to both the shifter and the handbrake. I checked the AS BUILT programing options, but i dont have any idea in which module i have to experiment. Anyone have any clues on this ?
 
It's probably not headlights, but instead driving lights. This (parking brake off, transmission in drive) is normal Ford behavior for driving lights. Non-US LSes had driving lights enabled. This is the high-beams and lower power. The FEM controls this. Forscan can likely disable this feature.
 
joegr said:
It's probably not headlights, but instead driving lights. This (parking brake off, transmission in drive) is normal Ford behavior for driving lights. Non-US LSes had driving lights enabled. This is the high-beams and lower power. The FEM controls this. Forscan can likely disable this feature.
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Huh, didn't know the LS came with DRLs on other markets. Then again, that shouldn't surprise me because my last car (a 2002 Mazda Protege5) also had DRLs as standard for Canadian/European/Japanese markets
 
I believe that it was (and is) a legal requirement for some markets.
 
RyLS said:
Huh, didn't know the LS came with DRLs on other markets. Then again, that shouldn't surprise me because my last car (a 2002 Mazda Protege5) also had DRLs as standard for Canadian/European/Japanese markets
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Virtually every car has daytime running lights since sometime in the 1990s, it's turned on or off in the software at a dealer. Some countries like Canada require them. If sold in Canada they're turned on and in the USA they are usually off.
 
SultanGris said:
Virtually every car has daytime running lights since sometime in the 1990s, it's turned on or off in the software at a dealer. Some countries like Canada require them. If sold in Canada they're turned on and in the USA they are usually off.
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Wonder if we could code that into our 'Murican market cars with Forscan?
 
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