2010 Bay Star on a 2008 F53 PS vs LV question

[R.Wold]

Ok so my owners manual for my 2008 chassis says use Mercon PS but the dipstick says use LV.

My guess (and thats all it is) is that I should use PS as the book states since it was printed for that model year chassis, and that the dipstick that says “use LV” on it came with the dipstick tube extension that was installed at the time the coach was built in 2010 at which time Ford had moved to LV.

Im also quite curious if its ok to mix these two as adding either one could be wrong depending on whether the book or the dipstick is right. Anyone have a reasonably educated guess for me that supersedes my wild guess?

[R.Wold]

Well it took some time but I determined (fairly reliably) that my trans came with SP in 2008, and ford changed (upgraded?) to LV by the time the coach was built in 2010. So it got an LV dipstick with the tube extension.

If you call a dealership or knowledgeable shop, they will all say that any 5R110 should get LV because thats the current spec, not because that was the OE fluid. They really don't know and done care what it came with.

Also according to a Ford bulletin, the two fluids are compatible so if your trans had SP and you do a pan drop/filter change/top off (7-8 qts) with LV all is fine, no worries. Doesn't matter if the other 8 qts are LV or SP, so yo don't need to determine the OE fluid.

My dilemma was that my 2008 owners manual said SP and I bought 8 qts of SP at a ford dealer last month (so much for “discontinued by Ford”), did the service, added the SP and then saw that the dipstick said LV. Hence the question above and a lot of searching around the internet until I found my answer. But I couldn't get a credible (reliable) answer from a shop because as far as they are concerned its all LV now. And of course I worried that it may have had LV in it and I added SP.

But since it only had 19000 miles on it when I bought it and it only had 2 documented oil changes (7500 mile intervals) its pretty unlikely that it ever had any trans service, and since the fluids are compatible, it doesn't really matter anyway. But it probably had SP, I guess.

Maybe I think too much....

[R.Wold]

Oasis message :
All 2003-2008 f-super duty, 2003-2005 excursion, 2004-2008 e-series and
2006-2008 lcf vehicles equipped with a torqshift automatic transmissions should
be serviced with mercon lv automatic transmission fluid in place of mercon sp.
This includes top off as well as fluid replacement. Mixing mercon lv and mercon
sp in the torqshift transmission is acceptable. Use mercon lv transmission fluid
to service vehicles equipped with torqshift transmissions. When adding or
replacing transmission fluid in a vehicle equipped with a torqshift
transmission, use mercon lv transmission fluid.