Chadi

Guys, thanks in advance for anyone's help on this. I've never really posted to the site so I'm not recognizable.

I want to drain my tranny fluid (manual) and my coolant. Looking for some advice, and how to. I have 134K on my 97SE. I know manual trans aren't usually drained but i think i need it, getting a lot of winding noise. Also I really want to flush and clean my block before winter.

Any help would be great.

Thanks.

Chadi

phenryiv1

iTrader: (19)

Your best bet here is to search. I would search for you and post the threads that have the best answers, but when I search I get a "page not found" error message. Try searching w/in the last 3 months./ I have a lot of posts about these same questions, so you might try searching pages with replies by my name w/ in those 3 months. There are a lot of answers there.

CanadianMaxima

here ya go

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....threadid=62213

not sure about the tranny fluid cause mine is a auto... and a 3rd gen...

iwannabmw

iTrader: (3)

I copied these from some of the FAQ's on how to change the fluid:

The first step to changing the manual transmission oil is to jack up the front end of the car and reinforce the lift by adding a pair of jack stands.

NEVER GET UNDER THE CAR WITHOUT FIRST MOUNTING JACK STANDS.

Now get under the front end and look up. On your left side (with your feet sticking out in front of the car), you will see the transmisison. Now look at the farthest back part of the transmission and you'll see the shift linkage, which has a long black metal rod coming out of it and going up to your shifter lever. This bar has an "accordian-like" looking attachment to the transmission. Now look at the [absoulte] right face of the transmission, about six inches in front of the shift linkage you'll see a small bolt. This one's a sleeper -- it's the drain bolt for the whole tranny. For reference, this is the bolt that is somewhat covered by the OTHER long black metal bar coming from behind. (That's the "support rod" according to my 97 Nissan Maxima service manual).

So the first step is to get an oil collector pan under the car and open that drain bolt. It's not that long, so be careful when twisting it off. Once you've got all the oil drained out, close it back up. Remember, give it a long time to fully drain, as you want to get rid of as much of the mineral-based OEM oil as you possibly can. Once you've re-installed the drain bolt, you must relocate yourself to fill the tranny. Look at the [absolute] front face of the tranny and you'll notice a large threaded bolt about five inches from the right edge of this front face. This is the fill *and* check bolt. (The "check" function won't be utilized until after we lower the front end back to the ground). This bolt has a 1/2" square female connection, so to open it you must utilize a 1/2" square ratchet. Completely remove this bolt from the front side of the tranny. Then you must figure out how to get the Redline MT-90 into that hole. I think the bottles' nozzles are too short to do it directly... you'll probably have use some kind of pump.

Now, you may have reazlied that you have no way of knowing when the tranny is "full" because the car is tilted backwards and all the oil is going to the rear-end of the tranny. You are indeed correct. That's why you should SLIGHTLY OVERFILL the tranny while its' still raised. I think that 4.8 quarts would probably be a good amount to pour in at this time. Then get out from under the car and remove the jackstands. Then put a [SHALLOW] oil drain pan under the front side of the transmission and slowly lower the car on top of it. Since the hole in the front face of the tranny is designed to be exactly at the optimal level of the oil, all the overfilled oil will pour out through that hole, slide down the side of the tranny, and fall into the oil drain hole. When this is finished, raise the front end again and mount the jack stands. If no oil came out, put in some more MT-90 and repeat the last step. Then re-install the fill/check bolt in the front side of the tranny, and clean off the oil that came down the front face of the tranny.

Now remove the jack stands and lower the car. You're done.

jargoone

They sell something at most auto parts stores that make this a snap. It's a funnel with a valve and a tube leading off. Looks sort of like a beer bong. The good thing about it is that you can stop the flow right when you realize it's full rather than having to let what's left in the tube drain out.

Finding the drain plug is the most difficult part of this job. The rest is cake.

1MAX2NV

iTrader: (5)

I would just pay Jiffy lube type of places that can do a cooling system flush. For $69, you don't have to mess with engine drain plugs which IMHO are impossible to get to.

Toolrocks

iTrader: (1)

1MAX2NV has a good point regarding the coolant. Also, I would just add, per Daniel B Martins advice, to make sure you can remove the transmission filler bolt before you drain the tranny. Good luck otherwise.

StygianMax

iTrader: (8)

Welcome Chadi!

Check out this site http://www.motorvate.ca/ for lots of good details about changing coolant. Drill down under "Engine". I'm not sure if there's info on changin tranny fluid. I'll let you do the hunting.

cheers

sryth

Removing the tranny drain plug on mine was next to impossible. In fact, it never came out. I drained it via the gear selector sensor (the plastic thing with the wire going into it on the driver's side of the tranny). It drains very quickly using this method. Just be careful not to damage the o-ring on the sensor.

-Sryth...
__________________________________________________ ____________________________
'98 SE 5spd, Pebble Beige, PRCAI, Stillen Y, Stillen FSTB, ACT clutch.
Pacesetter STS to be installed this week!

StygianMax

iTrader: (8)

Here's my How-To for MT fluid drain/fill Have fun!