Transmission Fluid

[gocellygo]

Could someone tell what would be the best synthetic fluid to use in the transmission of my 91 Festy?

[rmoltis]

I'm not sure which brand would be the best that is a personal preference kind of thinking.

But manuals and automatics both use atf fluid.

So just find yourself a brand of synthetic atf fluid you prefer and go for it.

There have been many discussions on whether or not to use gear oil.
The vehicle is not spec'd for gear oil.
It is spec'd for atf.

Which is weird because most manual trannies I've worked on are gear oil except for a few.
The terminator cobras take atf too. I remember draining out a factory filled transmission off of one.
And I was suprised to see atf coming out of a high performance vehicle.

I have also seen Hondas where 10w30 motor oil is spec'd for the transmission lol.

[old yellow]

Transmission Fluid

I use royal purple 75w-90 in the aspire
Best tranny yet!


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[rmoltis]

My last aspire that I bought had gear oil it's whole life. As well as I used synthetic 75-90 weight gear oil.
Because I thought that's what it used as well as it is not uncommon for transmissions to use gear oil (quite common)

But the tranny started developing a whine at 95k that slowly developed into a bad tranny with no 2,3,4 th gear by 115k miles.

Now there is no way to say for sure it was the cause.
But in my head I'm going to believe it was.

Because my current aspire has always had atf in it.
Bought it at the same mileage as first 89k.
Had atf in it all its life.
I will change it the second time, since I've owned it now.

Changes are good for about 30k right?
It has been around 35k I should be fine.
It was drained and looked in good condition.
By condition I only mean the color of the fluid.
There is no way for me to know if it's additives or lubricants or detergents were worn out.

I'm gonna keep atf in it always.
Either way. At 125k miles this trans is going strong still and I hope it will last longer than my last one.

The Dimple brand "worlds strongest magnet" for my trans I ordered should help a little too.

[TorqueEffect]

As far as I know, my transmission had been running atf it's whole life, then I switched it to Pennzoil synchromesh, then an unrelated failure of the shift gate bracket inside it caused me to have to pull the transmission. But up until that point it still ran like a top at 323k miles.

[Bert]

For us old guys it seems counter intuitive to put ATF in a manual transmission but that's what the Festy specs call for. My 86 F150 now has a late 80s Mazda M5ODR2 5 speed truck transmission in it and the specs call for ATF in this too.
What you do after the drivetrain warranty has expired is entirely your own business but heaven forbid you'd gone back to the dealer with a blown tranny when the car was nearly new and it was discovered you'd switched over to gear oil instead.

[Movin]

Cars require their own type of ATF because of the different coefficient of friction needed for a good shift. Has anyone noticed a difference using type F oil as opposed to universal, Type A or ?

Something like Pentosin CVT1 might help reduce bearing and gear wear, especially in the Aspire transmission. The old eighties type F might help shift feel because it had friction coefficients like sandpaper. Helps the syncros to grab. Would a Synthetis CVT auto oil produce excellent shift feel and reduce wear ?
OP it looks like a poll for success and discussion may be the result as there is no simple answer.

Maybe one of the current Ford employees can check but I think that Ford specs Mercon for the manual transmission but has changed the Mercon spec to Mercon V for only the automatic transmission. They still spec ATF type F for the power steering.

The Festiva transmission was shipped with a Mazda gear oil, kind of yellow from the factory. Fords recommended change to ATF may not be an upgrade but an effort to hold costs down on their least expensive cars.

[old yellow]

Our First Aspire started loosing gears at 60,000 miles or before, can't really remember... it was owned by my grandmother before she moved down to Arizona and gave it to dad.... it was also drove better then a grandma would ever drive! untill it got totaled at about 90,000 miles and that's how we got the white Aspire... the white one has that car's engine

I am tired of changing the Aspire Trannys and ATF wasn't helping..... The Festiva Tranny is the next thing to go in the Aspire if the time comes!
The Aspire tranny only lasts 10-20,000 miles with ATF before we have to change the 5 speed (and that's not being rough with it)
the one that's in our Aspire now always had gear oil in it.... it came from the 94 blue Aspire we bought for a spair car (and my uncle thought he had blew the head gasket) it lasted 60,000 miles from the time we bought the blue aspire at 160,000 miles untill we put it on our white aspire at about 220,000 miles and it's still going for now at least 60-70,000 miles later

I will still always reccomend 75W90 royal purple for aspire 5 speeds that is if you don't feel like modifiing the Festiva tranny to work with the Aspire

it's common for us to have 3 speed aspire.... gears one three five and reverse are the strong ones

[rmoltis]

Our First Aspire started loosing gears at 60,000 miles or before, can't really remember... it was owned by my grandmother before she moved down to Arizona and gave it to dad.... it was also drove better then a grandma would ever drive! untill it got totaled at about 90,000 miles and that's how we got the white Aspire... the white one has that car's engine

I am tired of changing the Aspire Trannys and ATF wasn't helping..... The Festiva Tranny is the next thing to go in the Aspire if the time comes!
The Aspire tranny only lasts 10-20,000 miles with ATF before we have to change the 5 speed (and that's not being rough with it)
the one that's in our Aspire now always had gear oil in it.... it came from the 94 blue Aspire we bought for a spair car (and my uncle thought he had blew the head gasket) it lasted 60,000 miles from the time we bought the blue aspire at 160,000 miles untill we put it on our white aspire at about 220,000 miles and it's still going for now at least 60-70,000 miles later

I will still always reccomend 75W90 royal purple for aspire 5 speeds that is if you don't feel like modifiing the Festiva tranny to work with the Aspire

it's common for us to have 3 speed aspire.... gears one three five and reverse are the strong ones

So it sounds to me you are using old used transmissions not rebuilt correct?
Unknown maintenance history or driving styles.
Sounds like you chances for failing transmissions would be high.

Once I rebuilt my last aspires trans and used atf from then on.
it ran for another 200,000 miles before I sold it still running flawlessly.

[old yellow]

can't explain why the one in our old 95 silver aspire went out the same way as I know it's history and it was never beat.... but yes they are all junkyard trannys... still we might just go with a festiva tranny on our next replacement 3.77 final vs 4.05 final will make a difference when 80% or more of time the Aspire is on the freeway

[TorqueEffect]

I still wouldn't use any GL-5 rated gear oil as that eats brass synchros, and I believe we do indeed have brass synchros.

I am half tempted to try the Valvoline CVT fluid that I picked up on clearance a while back. That or the Mobile 1 Synthetic ATF I picked up on clearance as well. Because I do have a crunch if I shift too quickly into second, but my stabilizer bar is not entirely secured properly so that MIGHT be what is causing that. Long story short, the only transmission I could get on short notice, and delivered to my door by another member for $100, had the stabilizer bar stud busted out on accident because he had forgotten to disconnect it before dropping the transmission, though the member here said it was fine when he pulled it so I don't know. Don't remember the member's screenname off the top of my head at the moment.

[skeeters_keeper]

Penzoil syncromesh.

Definitely no GL-5, we do have brass syncros as TorqueEffect said.

[eurotiva]

Atf here never had an issue. I just switch to 20w50 motorcycle oil and it seems to work well too

[sketchman]

Mobile 1 Euro 0w-40. Or Mobile 1 High Mileage.

[eurotiva]

? Talking trans fluid.