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Is there some kind of ATF shortage?

W

WimWalther

Experienced Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2019
Messages
449
Location
St. Paul, MN
We've been to several local auto stores plus Menards and probably one more.. and can't find a single bottle of plain old DEXRON II / III ATF anywhere. A few places have the Valvoline DEX VI / MERCON LV Full Synthetic stuff, but I don't run synthetic in the vehicle and I'm not paying close to $7/qt anyway.

Anybody know what gives? Been like this for a month or more
 
I’m not sure about ATF because I haven’t been shopping for it recently, but the last time I went to get oil to do an oil change, there were numerous brands sold out. It seemed that the people looking for Diesel oil had an even harder time finding things like rotella T. I ended up buying a store brand synthetic because the 5 quart name brands were all sold out and buying them by individual quarts nearly doubles the price.
 
The phenomenon is "PRICE GOUGING" and "HIJACKING" our CASH in USD.

I was in need of an Oil Filter for my 2020 RAM Eco-Diesel, and the Dealer had several
in Stock for $109.xx Plus TAX. And the Dealer was 30 Miles North on my Home.
Over $100 for a MOPAR OIL Filter is CRAZY.

And now days everything is CRAZY.

Larry
 
Walmart has it, in gallon jugs for like 14 dollars. What I have resorted to lately... Just did a trans flush on my 95 f150xl and was a pain finding it.
 
In my case I just need to top up. I have an 02 Nissan Pathfinder, and these trannys have a lockup torque converter that works a little differently than I'm used to.

When the computer calls for lockup, it actuates a hydraulic solenoid valve that does the actual locking. It seems that if the fluid is low, the converter will flutter in & out of lockup.
 
Still suggest a gal due to a qt being 7-8 bucks now and hard to find...

Here's what you are looking for
IMG_20220629_181142737_HDR_50.jpg
 
So here's the lowdown as I understand it.

The name DEXRON and its variants like DEXRON III are a registered trademark of GM. The situation with Merçon may be similar. But the licenses for all of the old fluid names (Dex II, III etc) expired several years ago and could not be renewed.

This is because the old fluid specs have been superceded by Dex V/VI specs etc, SOME OF WHICH is backwards-compatible with the older fluids.

So in short, you can't buy new Dex II/III because the manufacturers can't put that label on their products.
 
Maybe someone can tell me why there are like 5 different colors of coolant now. At first we had the green reliable. Then Dex-cool orange by GM. Our Subaru now has some Blue variant... Does it really matter.. this screams BS to me.
 
VERAULT said:
Maybe someone can tell me why there are like 5 different colors of coolant now. At first we had the green reliable. Then Dex-cool orange by GM. Our Subaru now has some Blue variant... Does it really matter.. this screams BS to me.
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The green wasn't the only color in the past, Zerex that claimed to seal holes was blue and that was a long time ago but you are right there are not only many colors but now they have different types. My daughter owns a 2017 Pathfinder and they call for "asian vehicle blend" but the thing has been running plain green for about 4 yrs now and no problems with it. I had a Plymouth years ago that had aluminum heads on a cast iron block that specified some additive or a special type coolant, I ran it for 8 yrs with plain Prestone and never a problem.

I remember when I was a kid, my grandfather who was born in 1906 told me that they would use propylene glycol (very common then in gallons) with the water and add it until the specific gravity float would get to a specific point. Now it's dyed pink and used for winter storage of water systems in RVs. Safe to use as you can ingest it but too much has a laxative effect. I now use PG as one of the components in the eliquid I make at home for vaping.
 
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yeah, thats pretty much what I thought.

My biggest complaint about new cars is th electric parking brake. ITs a complete joke. In fact we just had one fail. I know many american vehicles have had the pull lever under the steering wheel. And although thats far superior to the electric actuated parking brake I still think its not all that useful. My Acura and Infinity and my wifes former Saab all had the center console Brake lever. Those things are worth thier weight in gold. Having been through multiple brake line/hose failures on multiple cars; with the lever you can actually drive the car home.
 
VERAULT said:
yeah, thats pretty much what I thought.

My biggest complaint about new cars is th electric parking brake. ITs a complete joke. In fact we just had one fail. I know many american vehicles have had the pull lever under the steering wheel. And although thats far superior to the electric actuated parking brake I still think its not all that useful. My Acura and Infinity and my wifes former Saab all had the center console Brake lever. Those things are worth thier weight in gold. Having been through multiple brake line/hose failures on multiple cars; with the lever you can actually drive the car home.
Click to expand...
When I was in the military (USAF) we had vehicles mostly the larger ones like buses and heavy trucks that had a driveshaft brake with a lever in the middle of the cab that was adjustable for tension similar to the knob on the end of a vise grip pliers. You weren't moving that without disengaging the lever or picking the vehicle up by the drive wheels.
 
Yeah... Thats the type of of thing that makes way too much sense... therefor we will never see it on a commecial product.
 
I think most heavy trucks use a driveshaft friction brake because the service brake is a pneumatic system which doesn't integrate well with the typical cable-operated system.

Putting it on the driveshaft is also a more foolproof and effective brake, because of the mechanical advantage offered by the rear end gearing.

I could well be wrong, though.
 
Had me thinking about the driveshaft brake today. Wonder how much work it would be to add something like that to my 94 F150XL.
 
There are various kits for pinion/transfer case parking brakes.
 
VERAULT said:
yeah, thats pretty much what I thought.

My biggest complaint about new cars is th electric parking brake. ITs a complete joke. In fact we just had one fail. I know many american vehicles have had the pull lever under the steering wheel. And although thats far superior to the electric actuated parking brake I still think its not all that useful. My Acura and Infinity and my wifes former Saab all had the center console Brake lever. Those things are worth thier weight in gold. Having been through multiple brake line/hose failures on multiple cars; with the lever you can actually drive the car home.
Click to expand...

I hate electric handbrakes.

I mean, how are you meant to drift into that 90 left without a manual, centre console flyoff leaver :) (yes a misspent youth rallying my old Astra)

But more so you can't modulate it on a steep hill start. In a manual with three pedals to press, its nice to have the hand on the handbrake as the clutch starts to bite. I was in the wifes car and just started to come out of a steep up hill junction, handbrake self disengages then a car appears at speed and I needed to jump onto the brake pedal giving a brief but noticeable roll back whereas with a manual, you just increase the tension on it again.

An electric handbrake probably gets better with familiarity but I like my cars with a manual gearbox, manual handbrake, none power assisted steering and a flat 6
 
VERAULT said:
Maybe someone can tell me why there are like 5 different colors of coolant now. At first we had the green reliable. Then Dex-cool orange by GM. Our Subaru now has some Blue variant... Does it really matter.. this screams BS to me.
Click to expand...
The green stuff was designed for cast iron blocks and heads and was meant to be changed yearly, during which time most people poured it down the drain or dumped it on the ground -- not good for the environment. As engines switched to using more aluminum and plastic parts, new formulations of antifreeze needed to be developed, such as GM's Dex-Cool (orange) and VW's G12 (pink). G12 also has self-sealing properties -- if any of it leaks out, it'll harden into a crust which helps to seal the leak.

Modern engines also need to operate a more tightly regulated temperature in order to meet emissions regulations -- that's why air-cooled engines disappeared, because it's difficult to regulate their temperature, so they weren't able to meet modern emissions standards.

And many modern manual transmission cars have a hill-holder feature, so you don't need to use the parking brake to keep you from rolling back when taking off on an incline.
 
WimWalther said:
I think most heavy trucks use a driveshaft friction brake because the service brake is a pneumatic system which doesn't integrate well with the typical cable-operated system.

Putting it on the driveshaft is also a more foolproof and effective brake, because of the mechanical advantage offered by the rear end gearing.

I could well be wrong, though.
Click to expand...
The ones we had were hydraulic drum brakes mostly, the tractor-trailer types we had used the air park brake like OTR trucks have (the dash mount Pull for Brake button). This was in the late 70s and the vehicles were 1968 to 1975 mostly and about half were civilian types like the bus, 1.5 ton flatbed and a step van. We also had Coleman tugs (aircraft tugs we used to pull munitions trailers) and a couple Vietnam era 5 ton and 2.5 ton trucks. All had it and none were automatic trans. The later Colemans we got had a 6 cyl engine instead of a 4 and an Allison automatic instead of the 4 speed manual with electric clutch but both the old and new had driveshaft brake.
 
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