This weekend, I felt like now that the SNIPER was caught and I was safe in the open, I would do some long-overdue 60K service on my Maxima (and to work on my wife's car). I am at 65K, but I checked the records when I bought the car in June (@ 58K) and none of the necessary fluids were changed, except for oil.

I got all of what I thought that I would need to do most of a tune up, as well as to change the oil in my wife's Cavalier:
5 Quarts of oil & oil filter (her car), 10 Quarts of Dexron III ATF, Nissan Fuel filter, PCV Valve, 6 NGK Platinums, lots of rags, rubber gloves, and a drain pan. I was SET. (Notice, however, the absence of a FSM or haynes/chiltons manual.)

Not all went as planned. It was a nice day, and I got up and went out to work. First off, when you spend a lot of time in the gym, it is tough to fit under compact cars...even Maximas. NO way I was getting the oil plug out from the side of the car, so off to the Auto parts store (trip number 1) for ramps (Wal-mart and K-Mart were out, of course).

$20 later, we have ramps. Pull her car up, drain oil, drop filter, replace filter and plug, refill, and done. 20 minutes. BACK to store to drain oil catch-basin (trip # 2).

Now on to the Max. Up on ramps, I got ready to do a flush and fill of my Auto tranny. I had read and printed the highlights from these threads: http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....=ATF+AND+flush and http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....ighlight=flush, however I did NOT see: http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....uid+and+amount. Had I seen that thread, I would have known that I needed to purchase a 3/8" hose to do the drain. Had I had a FSM or shop manual, I also would have known which line was the tranny return line. Not wanting to drop $15 on the manual at the store (I want a FSM, not a haynes/chiltons) and lacking the 3/8" line (and not wanting to take trip # 3 to the store ), I decided to just do a drain and fill, wait a few weeks and repeat (2 more times). Also, the store had no pan gaskets, so I was not able to scrape the pan. Maybe next time.

The drain and fill went off without incident, except for the fact that the tranny plug is STANDARD. WTF is up with that? No metric? Stranger still was the fact that my wife's oil pan plug was metric (on a Chevy...weird).

I did a refill, fired it up, checked levels, backed off of the ramps and went on to the next challenge: Plugs. HaHaHa. Whis was a F'ing MESS!

I read this thread in preperation:
http://integra.vtec.net/geeser/megamax/60k_service.html, as well as another thread that I cannot find at the moment. Both were heplful, but the real p!$$er came when I catually got into the process. I had re-gapped the plugs in the house, and was ready to install, right? Nope.

HOW IN THE HELL DO SOME OF YOU GET THE PLUGS OUT?!?!? My Plug socket would not extract the old plugs. I even tried magnetizing it.

The front 3 were not too bad. A little b!+ching, a little cussing and a set of 6" needlenose pliers on the end of the plugs and they came out. In with the new and we were on our way. Now on to the back. No FSTB (yet- on the way), so that was not a problem. I removed the little bracket over the right-most plug (facing) and was in good shape...unitl I actually got into the removal phase. I had extensions for my socket set, but none were long enough. Off to the store (trip #3) for one of the few non-craftsman tools in my box, a 12" extension bar ($8). Losen, extract, oh wait, extraction was not going to work...try the pliers...nope. 8" needlenose? Haha, yeah right. Coat hanger bent into a hook? Nope. FINALLY, I used 2-sided mounting tape on the end of the extension bar and pulled the plugs out carefully. All the plugs went in okay, then I dropped a screw under a bend in the valve cover, 20 minutes wasted gettign THAT out, and I was done.

On to the Fuel Filter. First off, I got ripped to the tune of $15 and change at the dealer...should have ordered it from an org dealer, but it was too late. I read this: http://www.seas.ucla.edu/~cheston/fuelfilter.html and figured I was in good shape. Fortunately, I was not too far off. It took a while, even with the pressuer released, but it came off. I have nasty scratches on my forearm, but I will survive. Fired it up, all systems go.

At this point, I was too tired to do the PCV valve, plus I lacked a manual and was too dirty to try to pull something up on here telling me where it was. Another day- maybe when I do the second tranny drain.

I did try to buff out my scratch, but no luck there. A slight improvement, buot nothing worth gettng excited about.

My next project is a coolant flush and fill with the tranny fluid and PCV valve in the same weekend. Wish me luck.

On the positive side, idle is much smoother, throttle response is GREATLY improved, and downshifting lag (as well as passing power) are much better. It may be a placebo effect, but it works for me. I also dumped in a bottle of Techron now that the fuel filter is changed. I waited until the filter was new so that more of the cleaning agents can go the the fuel delivery system instead of being wasted on cleaning a filty filter.

 

Sorry to hear that bro,

Just think though, you saved some $ by not taking it to the ripo dealer like I did.......

 

for future reference you dont have to get under the car to change your oil. no ramps no jack is needed. just turn the wheel all the way to the right...take out the 3 or 4 screws/clips that hold the fender liner in and the oil pan/drain plug are right there to drain.



go to a parts store or maybe radio shack (cant remember where i got mine) and get a "grabber" i am not sure of the technical term for this tool but it is a wonderful thing to have around the HOUSE let alone the garage.



hope that helps you out in the future.

 

In the end, the accomplishment was worth the trouble...I just wish I had been more prepared. I was missing a few tools and a little direction, but it worked out for the best.

Actually, it was HER car that I could not get under...I can fit under the max to change the oil, but just barely. I ran it up on ramps to do the tranny because, hey, I just dropped $20 on ramps, at least I am going to use them!

I NEED one of those!

 

Get a proper spark plug socket. They have a rubber grommet inside that holds the plug firmly in the socket. Sears Crafstman, 5.99 your tip #5 to the store perhaps?

 

i have that same one...still didnt hold them. oh well they came out one way or another.

 

My sockets get stuck down there w/ the plugs. I guess they have too much grip

Maybe they are just old

 

Should also consider getting the Craftsman locking extensions. The spark plug socket can't come off and it makes getting the plugs in and out very easy.

 

put a piece of electrical tape on the end of the outside of the socket and fold it over into the inside...this will help hold the plug...or any other hard to extract/replace fastener.

 

Reply to several recent threads:

My socket is a craftsman spark plug socket. It just didn't grip.

Other than the new extension bar, all of my sockets are the craftsman locking sockets and extensions. Even my new extension is fairly close in design.

I chalk this up to a learning experience.

ONE ADDITIONAL MOD THAT I MISSED:

I also upgraded to Silverstars. See the thread here.

 

put a piece of electrical tape on the end of the outside of the socket and fold it over into the inside...this will help hold the plug...or any other hard to extract/replace fastener.

 

If you're so cheap, why don't you just quit the gym membership and use the money to pay a real mechanic? Just kidding...

I did an ATF flush without using any extra hoses. I just pulled one off and stuck it in a gallon milk jug. The first one I pulled off was the wrong one, but it wasn't too messy. I filled up a gallon milk jug with the car running, then turned it off and dumped a gallon of atf in. Then i ran the car again and filled up another gallon jug, and put in another gallon of ATF, at which point the old fluid coming out was nice and fresh.

 

Wow, that started to p!$$ me off, the I realized you were joking...

If I had read more threads, I would have seen that the extra hose was not necessary, BUT I still lacked the jugs to fill into (I could have found SOMETHING), and I really lacked the knowlege of which line to the radiator to unplug. I would have paid to have it done,. but the cheapest estimate was $140!!! I can find the time to do the drain-and-fill 3x for that much of a rip-off on price...

 

It was probably fate that you didn't get the 3/8" hose. I did, however, get it for my tranny flush this past weekend...I discovered, at least for my radiator, that a 5/16" would have worked better...The 3/8" hose wasn't very snug on the nipple and leaked a little as I was flushing.

Re: return line...I believe I saw a forum post that pointed to the zig-zag shaped hose on the driver's side as the return line.

I don't have OCD, but I did feel better about getting all of the old fluid replaced with some nice clean synthetic.

 

Next time go here for tranny flush. $69 I believe. http://www.vioc.com/ They have a location in Manassa VA.

 

Sometimes though the satisfaction of knowing you did it yourself is a lot better.

SuDZ

 

I would have paid the $69 to know that it was fully flushed and that I do not have to repeat the process in a few weeks to get what I missed this time around.

 

I just saw this segment on Car Guys TV (speedvision) where they flushed a transmission and filled it at the same time. The most amazing thing i saw. Its a big box type machine with the liquid in it and as the piston gos up a tube in it the crappyness fluid comes out under the piston and the new fluid gets forced in through another hose. When the machine is almost done it basically pumps the new liquid out as bad so its pretty much a done deal that it emptied out all the old trans fluid. I dont know if it was a new product, nor do i know much about transmission flushing, but that looked like about the easiest and fastest way to change it. Is it possible for our cars or not?

 

http://www.twoguysgarage.com/site/th....php?SegID=154
Here is the link. Looks like its for automatics only.

 

It looks like this machine does automatically what the DIYer would do manually...It puts new fluid into the reservoir and extracts old fluid through a tranny cooler line. I guess I'll be standing in line with SuDZ...I enjoy the satisfaction of doing it myself. The gravy is the saved money. It's a lot like changing the engine oil, I can't seem to bring myself to spend the [nominally] $24 for an oil change when I can do it myself. And I suppose I could put the saved $$ towards synthetics.

 

have you thought about just driang the tranny fuild from the drain hole and then refilling it and then repeating this process every 5000 miles until you got all the fluid out?

I know it seems like a lot of work , but it is not.. I did nine this way and used a synthetic fluid and saved some money.

Just a suggestion

 

The service by the machine you described is what you can get for ~$69 at this place http://www.vioc.com/

 

This is exactly what I am doing. 1 down, 2 more drain-and-fills to go. That will change 75-90%, depending on how much actually drains. I really don't weven have to wait 5K, I could do it after 100 miles, probably even 10. But I will wait a few weeks for it to cycle through. I just want to have it all done before it gets cold(er).

 

well I said 5000 miles to keep it on pace with the oil change... but yeah your right... you could do it when ever.. just as longe as you give the fluid a chance to circulate..like you said

 

The FIRST time you do those maintainence tasks, they can really suck! After you learn the necessary 'tricks', they go a LOT easier the second time.

NOW, for those pesky sparkplugs....

A piece of rubber hose works WONDERS!

You just stick the hose down in there, it slips over the end of the plug, and you pull it out. It works even better for installing. You just stick the plug into the end of the hose and lower it down into the hole... and use the hose to spin it down into the hole. All you need the wrench for is the final tightening. The plugs don't get damaged from falling into the hole, and you don't have a stroke for becoming overly stressed.

Fuel line or large vacuum hose works great.

Good Luck!