I have a 2006 F150 with 4 speed auto trans. I just hit 75,000 miles and I'm going to go ahead and change the fluid and filter. There's a local shop that takes the pan off and changes the fluid and filter for $80 if I provide the fluid and filter. What's the best fluid and filter to get? And how many quarts of fluid do I need?

 

M/C filter, lots of members here (including me) use Amsoil ATF with super results. You should find a place that can do a total fluid exchange (NOT A FLUSH). Check your manual for total refill capacities, around 14 +- qts total I think

 

Spend the money for a full exchange. Any Mercon V fluid is fine. Filters generally don't need to be changed.

 

Is taking the pan off and draining all the fluid out and refilling it with new fluid not considered a fluid exchange? I thought a flush was just sucking it out without taking the pan off and cleaning it out

 

Just dropping the pan only removes about 5 or so quarts of fluid. The fluid will remain in the TC without an actual 'fluid exchange'. GLC is correct, the filter is really just for 'peace of mind', but, if you drop the pan..why not throw a new one in.

 

oh ok. I thought dropping the pan got it all. I'll make sure they get it all out before I go ahead with it

 

Do a fluid exchange, and most would agree that Amsoil is pretty much the high-end for fluids...

 

The 06 does not have a torque converter drain plug, so you pretty much need a machine to do a complete exchange. There is a way to do it by disconnecting cooler lines, but a shop isn't going to do that, they will use a machine (which does tap into the cooler lines).

Yes, Amsoil is a great fluid, but it costs twice as much as name brand Mercon V.

 

I just did a pan drop and filter change on my 08 with the 5 speed. I also changed the T-case fluid since I was down there and use my four wheel drive quite a bit in the winter. I spent 150 to include the air filter and fuel filter which needed to be changed. About 3 hours to change everything and an old bed sheet to really wipe all the crap out fo the transmission pan. A very easy job and a nice saturday activity. I used Mobile 1 ATF but be careful because I overfilled the transmission and had to bleed the pan to get back into the hash marks on my dip stick. Make sure you shift your truck through the gears when re-filling since I did not do that and it cost me about half a quart. I ended up putting 2 quarts in the t-case and around 4.3 into the transmission. I only have 50K on my truck so I didn't want to do a full fluid exchange until 75K or 100K.

 

Do not use a "generic" type of ATF like Scamsoil, or Mobil. Use only the specified ATF, which is Mercon V. Below is from a Ford ATF TSB, and also
a comparison of only 3 specifications between Scamsoil, and Mercon V:

 

thanks for all the info everybody

 

THROW your da*m soap box away !!!!! What you have quoted has nothing to do with the Transmissions we have !!! It pertains to the new CVT Trans.

 

This information confuses me.

 

Don't listen to Takeda - he has an agenda against Amsoil. He also doesn't know how to resize images and that's getting VERY annoying.

The chart at the bottom of his post is totally off the wall - he's trying to compare Amsoil's Mercon LV/SP replacement with standard Mercon V.

Amsoil's standard Mercon V replacement has the following numbers:

7.5
38.8
163

Amsoil does not have a fluid suitable for the CVT, and they are upfront about that.

 

Thank You GLC !!!!!