ATF Question

[ihgrad]

Anyone ever use Valvoline's Maxlife Dex/Merc? Supposed to be good for 75k+ miles cars and supposed to meet Dexron III. 1996 5sfe calls for Dexron II, so the ATF should be okay, right?

[touringcamry]

Dexron III supersedes Dexron II. It should work fine, though I would still keep a 30,000 mile drain and refill interval. I've never used Valvoline Maxlife though. I used Castrol before and it worked like any other Dexron III.

I won't say whether Castrol is better or worse than Valvoline, or any other brand, because I don't know the difference. Shifting was smoother, but replacing the fluid, regardless of brand, will do that.

[nikita]

Dexron III is compatible all the way back to Type A for 1949 Hydramatics, and all GM specs in between. No problem there. Just realize that if you drop the pan you are only changing about one third of the fluid. Only a professional flush changes it all. The suggestion of every 30,000 sounds about right for a "dump and refill" type of change, so all of it is changed in 90,000 miles.

[touringcamry]

Nah, draining and refilling repeated will not exchange all the fluid over 3 services because when you drain it the second time, you are going to remove both old and newer fluid.