I've heard both sides of this story, and frankly I wish Ford would clear up this confusion.
Ford originally said that some 2004 Sport Tracs were filled with the incorrect transmission fluid during the assembly process LAP. They said the supplier of the fluid had not included the proper additives to meet the Mercon-V fluid specifications. So Ford had a recall to insure all vehicles had the correct additives. This sounds like it should only be a one-time occurance and the use of the proper Mercon-V fluid for all future fluid changes would be sufficient
Others have heard that that the additive must be included when ever the fluid is changed. This would indicate that there has been a change to Mercon-V specifications. If there has been a change, why does Ford not state so and call the new fluid Mercon-VI.
My concern is that they discovered they needed to change the formula, but did not want to recall all the vehicles that use Mercon-V, so they claimed it only involved some 2004 models, and if anyone else has transmission problems, they will just be SOL!
This sounds like a good question to ask the Ford guru's at Dallas this year, and make sure that if they don't know they follow up. With the numerous complaints of transmission problems for numerous years, It just sounds too shady to me, and if Ford is not trying to hide something. Ford needs to come up with a better explaination than what we have been hearing.
...Rich
