Looking to do some fluid maintenance

[St Francisco]

As some probably already know, I bought an 05 Mustang GT about a month ago. It had about 32,000 miles on it.

Since I don't know how the previous owner treated the car, my first order of business has been to run through all of the fluids.

So far, I've replaced the fuel filter, and had the oil changed to Royal Purple 5w20 with a K&N filter.

Next up is the power steering fluid, engine coolant, manual transmission fluid, rear end differential fluid, and brake fluid.

1. The manual recommends Motorcraft Mercon ATF for both the power steering fluid and the manual transmission fluid...why is this?

2. Is there a point in changing the brake fluid?

3. The manual does not specify how much brake fluid or power steering fluid I would need to purchase to bring these up to proper levels...does anyone have these numbers?

4. Should I just go with the recommended Motorcraft fluids for these flushes and re-fills, or would products from Royal Purple or someone else be better?

 

[o0Dan0o]

The new manual transmissions use ATF, basically just a light oil, for their lubrication. Most of tremec transmissions use ATF and most people recommend GM Synchromesh. The PS uses the same, any oil makes a good hydraulic fluid and I guess this keeps things simple.

You could flush the brake fluid. I like motorcrafts HD fluid, I'd buy 3 bottles to do a full flush. I wouldn't say it's strictly necessary, but not the worst idea.

I don't really think you'll need to replace the PS fluid, check it for color, if it's still red it should be pretty good. Though I don't know how much fluid you'll need to fill it.

For PS, radiator and brake fluid I would go with ford stuff or anything approved, but nothing too expensive. For tranny, engine and rearend fluid, I would go with synthetic of some sort, mobile one or RP or AMSOil, ext..
Dan
Dan