'New' LS. 2001 V6

[jim6669jim]

My niece got the wife's old 2000 V8 LS Sport to use on a road trip. Not surprisingly it got totaled by a car that sideswiped her into a guardrail. But no one was hurt.
So I decided that safety was paramount and searched for another LS.
Found one last week, a 2001 V6 with only 18,000 miles.
It is literally the car "a little old lady drove, only to church and to the store".
It was in excellent shape, only a big crease in a door from a grave stone.

ABS light is on, so I need to check that here.

I replaced as much fluids as I could. Got 2 quarts in the transmission.
I read here that the reason for their failure is the wrong fluid installed at the factory.
Used Mercon V ATF.

Other than that hoping it isn't as bad as the V8 which had almost every failure cataloged for these cars.
Maybe just the valve cover gaskets and COPS and plugs?
Nice having more room to work on it under the hood vs the V8.

In any case I know how to replace the coolant pieces and window regulators.
And I won't have to worry about having chosen a fragile car in case of another accident.

 

[joegr]

...I replaced as much fluids as I could. Got 2 quarts in the transmission. I read here that the reason for their failure is the wrong fluid installed at the factory...

The transmission holds 12 quarts. You didn't accomplish much by just changing two of those twelve. If you dropped the pan, then more than two quarts would have drained out, so you are probably low now. Did you check fluid level with the transmission warmed up and the engine running? Without the engine running, you will under fill it.

Also, the "bad fluid" issue was around 2004, there were no known issues in 2000. That said, Ford says to change the fluid every 150K miles or 15 years, so it is due on time. The correct way to do this (according to Ford) is with a fluid exchange machine. It will change out all twelve quarts.

Lastly, it is certainly not true that bad fluid is the only or even the main reason for transmission problems. The solenoid assemblies fail (valves stick), springs in the valve body fail, valve body gaskets fail, servo bores fail, and servos themselves fail. When any of those things happen seems to be the luck of the draw, but with so few miles you shouldn't have to worry about it too much.