i need to change my transmition fluid. my dad says that i sould take it some place to have done because there is a filter that is hard to get to that needs to be changed as well. i looked in the chiltons manual and it wasnt very helpful. is this true?? i thought all i had to do is drain it and put new fluid in? what do you guys do? what would they do if i took it to someone to do?

 

they have a way to flush the old oil out and put new in some oilchange places will tell you "we dont change the fuild on high mileage cars" so you may have to shop around .They wont change the filter that is done when you rebild this should run you about $80.

 

has anyone done this themselves? matt??

 

Hey, there is no filter that is changed during a fluid change. It's like doing an oil change. You unscrew the transmission drain plug (If there is one, I can't remember on this car. If there isn't, you just drop the tranny pan), then you drain all the fluid. Put the plug back in, take out the tranny dipstick, insert funnel, and fill with the same much fluid you took out. Simple enough

 

thebull,

Your best bet is to do what darrick said. Go to a Jiffy Lube and spend $90 and get your transmission fluid changed the right way ... by doing a full tranny flush. This will replace all of the fluid in your system. If you just do a drain and fill, like BoyGenuis is talking about, you will only be able to drain about a quarter amount of the actual fluid in your tranny. It helps, but it's not good enough.

Also, our transmissions have a non servicable filter. You don't have to worry about it. It only needs to be messed with if your rebuilding your tranny.

 

it's a good idea to get the gasket and take the pan down aswell, i did this myself in 25 minutes. Remove the bolts after soaking them over night with some w-d 40( if you dont want them to break) also turn them slowly and if you feel the tip of the bolt start to break STOP! and take it to a shop and blame them when they finish off the job. Other than that, just warm th fluid, take out the drain plug,clean it off, put it back in and refill, the better wqay to do it is to ,take down the pan(do not pry, ever)gasket may be in reusable condition which is not recomended but is ok if it looks good. then there are just a few bots holding on the filter, you can look at it and tell if you should take it out and clean it, but it is metal and doest ever really need to be replaced i just cleaned mine and put it back in, but if you want the gasket, i had to buy the kit(14.99 napa)and it come's wi th filter. after your done toying with the filter clean out the sludge in your pan and there will be a magnet in there clean all the metal shaveings off(you shouldnt have more than a teaspoon if you do, you have problem's).when done you will see a little groove to sit it back into, in the pan. clean the old gasket off and all debree. now you can also adjust the bands. if you want to know how just email me and i will post it. the torque spec is not recomended here, you really need to feel it because it might not be able to handle it. I went to the parts store and got new ones it cost 4 dollars at napa. the torque spec on those were 11-14 lbs and the drain plug is also the same.

 

VG trannies...no pan..only drain plug.

 

I changed my fluid few months ago myself. I put a pan down there after removing the drain plug and let it drain for 2 hours. Actually, I've got about 7 qts of fluid out. I think the total is 10 qts so I was replacing more than half of it. First time, I changed it, I didn't wait long enough (maybe just 20 mins) and I was only measuring 5.5 qts.

-AC

 

The total amount of fluid in the tranny and convertor is about 7 quarts. There is a screen inside the tranny, and is usually only changed during a rebuild. I would take it to a lube place and have them do a complete flush, they will use about 9-10 quarts to do this, and it will be completely clean and new.

 

Unless your tranny is giving you problems, I wouldn't worry about dropping the pan and cleaning everything inside, that's just overkill. I also think you should just take it to a lube place and have it flushed out.

 

thanks everyone

 

Davis,

I'm missing something there... if the total capacity is 7 quarts (tranny & convertor), what do the shops do with the extra 2-3 quarts? Is this used like a kind of rinse?

Also, my only tranny experience is with Detroit musclecars of 30 years ago - in which you can't drain the torque convertor without removing it and dumping it out. You could leave your drip pan there 'till the stars fell down How do Maximas allow the convertor to drain thru a drain plug in the trans.?

Not only that, but on those old muscle cars, the (inaccessible) convertor's fluid capacity amounted to something like 70% of the total trans. fluid capacity. So a drain & refill had less of an effect (although better than nothing...) (Like Aaron92SE hints at)

I'm curious about the actual capacities. We've got a few conflicting numbers goin' around here.

My own inclinations would be to do it like AC439 describes. Do it myself, and allow lots of drainage time. If I thought I was getting a good percentage of the total volume (say, 75% or more), I'd be comfortable with that. Especially to the tune of 90 bucks to get that last 20 - 25%. Hard to justify that....

On the other hand, if my 2-1/2 hours & 7 quarts only got me 25% of the volume, and IF the shops use some sort of "power flush" that gets ALL the fluid (and not just "salesman-speak") then, I can see it...

Great topic. Sorry for my long-windedness.

Kirk

 

Capacities for Transmissions

Unit of measure is in pints, not quarts. I believe there are 2 pints in a quart. So, you do the math.

1985-1988 Maxima 5spd->10 Auto->14.75

1989-1990 VG Maxima 5spd->10 Auto->15.50

1991-1992 VG Maxima 5spd->10 Auto->15.75

VE Maxima 5spd->10 Auto->20.00

So, you can easily sum it up as VG Auto's being 15.5 pints and VE Auto's being 20 pints.

I thought the 89-90 VG Auto tranny is exactly the same as the 91-94 VG tranny. Why is the capacity slightly different?

 

Kewl,

So, anywhere from 7.5 to 10 quarts, depending on year and engine. Either way, if I could drain 7 quarts out on my own, just by being patient with the catch pan, I'd go that way over paying a Jiffy Lube 90 bucks.

I'm still curious as to how the Max's torque convertors drain?? Does the Chilton manual differentiate between the capacities for a "drain 'n fill" vs. "refill after complete overhaul"?? Just curious. Although, 10 QUARTS sounds like it would be a pretty complete fluid changeout.

 

No, all the Chilton's says is to do the drain and fill and that's it... be happy. It does not say how much fluid you should expect to come out when you pull the drain plug.

 

Dude, drop the drain bolt let it drain out...figure out how much came out by fillin up old tranny/oil quarts. Refill same amount with Redline Syn ATF

You will get approx 30% changed... just do 4 more re-fills and you are running full syn atf.

thats my plan and im stickin widdit

 

LOL

I can just see me putting my Joe Do-it-yourselfer 6 quart drain pan under there and getting 10 quarts out on my driveway...

Although, come to think of it, I HAVE done things like that... fairly regularly, too...

 

PJ, you beat me to the post when I replied.

AC439 got 7 quarts drained out. Aaron reports that that's just about the full capacity. Now you say that you'll only get 30% out...

Hmmmmmmmm.......

 

When you pull the drain plug on the tranny, only 3 quarts or so is going to come out, the torque convertor will still be full, the valve body will be full, and all the passages will be full. Letting it sit for hours will not make 7 quarts come out. The reason lube places use 9 or 10 quarts is because they use a machine that pumps fluid through until clean fluid comes out the other side, thus flushing the old fluid out. You can drain and refill your tranny several times and get about 75% of the old fluid out, but it takes time. I wouldn't waste my money on synthetic fluid on a high mileage car where the tranny has always used regular fluid.

 

or you could get a blower and do some ol MacGuyver ish and fix it up to where you can have a tube to fit over the area where the dipstick is and just blow/flush the tranny out.. just my .02!!

 

hmmmm i dont think its 90 to have your traine fluid flushed and replaced, i wanna say its a lot cheaper cuz i got my oil changed last week and i was looking at prices and i could have sworn its around 30 for traine fluid on a standard traine.

 

At Jiffy Lube, I am 100% sure that it's around 85-95 bucks for a full automatic transmission flush. They also have a drain and fill service that's about 20-25 bucks.