My Car History...

Power steering and manual gearbox both use Mercon V.

This is produced and bottled by ConocoPhillips on behalf of Motorcraft.

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I change the gearbox lubricant about every 20,000 - 25,000 miles. It came out a really nice red and no metallic appearance.

First thing i noticed was a slightly different odor from the previous Mercon V packaging and a deeper red color. The formulation must have changed.

Here's the old Mercon V packaging:

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I noticed an immediately quieter manual gearbox and much smoother feel in the shift lever.

Mercon V is a synthetic based ATF and its the recommended fluid.

The TR3650 is a huge 5 speed manual gearbox. It holds (1) gallon of ATF.

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Used a suction device to completely vacuum out the power steering system...that's when i noticed a non-replaceable screen inside the power steering reservoir.....

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The fluid was clean and free of contaminants. This screen is normally submerged, so you can't really evaluate it's condition until you drain the system.

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This is most likely from a failure to clean around the filler cap when adding/checking the system.

With some degreaser and the water hose, i was able to successfully backwards-flush the reservoir.

I would have gladly purchased a new reservoir, but i was working on this at a chum's shop after-hours, so a replacement was not an option.

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Filled the system and it bled itself in less than 30 seconds.

Power steering feel was much smoother, although it felt fine before.
 
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Tire wear looks good for a car lowered 3.0 inches from stock.

I checked my toe settings tonight. I shoot for zero...

This is measuring across the front of the tires between the center tread rib:

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This is measuring across the rear of the tires using the same center tread rib reference point:

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Camber is set to about a 1/4° negative.

I had my car aligned once at a shop the specializes in lowered vehicles. It wore the front tires out in 18,000 miles.

When asked about the short tire life, the shop babbled about "lowered car" and basically changing the subject.

I used an old bubble level and set the camber to - 1/4° and set the toe myself with a tape measure.

Result???

44,000 on the next set of front tires, same brand and size as the old ones..
 
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