[Georgeandkira]

I had the thought that "Type-F" (for Fords-claimed to be heavily friction modified and always excluded from listings as CVT fluid is today) could have been the culprit.
That I contacted Volvo regarding an apparent oversight in their manuals was based on the fact that the pale green fluid had been, for several years, universally installed in Volvo cars whilst the "red ATF" spec was still in print not merely my experience.
Several Volvo owners had experienced the same inconsistency and mentioned it on boards such as ours.
That the spec was finally changed could suggest mine was not just another "UFO sighting".

Oh, another thing. I saw and showed the management at a Volvo dealer the pale green fluid in their cars PS reservoirs while nothing but Castrol ATF was stocked as PS fluid.

And Marvin: Given the dishonesty behind Volvo's, and other car makers, contention that their automatic transmission fluid is lifetime and that the reason was to produce lower projected maintenance cost totals, it isn't any stretch to assume something like avoiding the cost of substituting a cheap mineral fluid with a synthetic one wouldn't be an engineers' choice but that of the accountants.

Remember, both "fluid follies" took place while Ford was buying Volvo and likely bending numbers all over the place.

This occurred during the time Ford played with the programming of the rock solid AW55-50 series transmissions and hurt them and their customers. The Stop Neutral feature had to vanish. These people have penny-pinching on their minds at all times.

Keep in mind this is the company which installed proven weak transmissions from their Taurus line into the heavier and more powerful Lincoln Continentals and Ford Crown Victorias.