hey guys,

i brought my 97 gle to the dealer and he told me that i needed to get a tranny flush. so i brought it to one of the local zap lube places. they did the flush for $90. on their report, they wrote

"metal shavings, we aren't responsible" as their comment.

what does that mean, and how the hell did metal shavings get in there? are they gonna screw up my max???

 

how many miles on it? is this the first flush it has had? some shavings are normal but obviously alot are a bad sign. if they found shavings and removed them and then the same amount or more show up again then it could be a sign of a dying tranny. are you having any slipping or rough shifting?

 

Now they've doen the flush you won't be able to check easily... After another 5k or 10 miles you need to pull the tranny pan and check the bottom of it. A thin film of charcoal grey fluid that is not gritty on the bottom of the pan is normal as the clutches in the clutch packs wear as designed.

Any sparkly metal shavings, or if the pan contents look like metallic paint (or 6" longs shard of destroyed final drive bearing ) are bad. If you see this then you option are to get a rebuild ASAP or wait until it fails. If you get the rebuild immediately the cost will most likely be slighty cheaper as they will only be replacing the soft parts (that are designed to wear) as opposed to when the tranny fails which could be a catastrophic failure with damage to many hard parts.

If I was you, and I saw metal flakes in the the tranny fluid in 10k miles, then I would either trade teh car immediately for another (If I didn't want to ever rebuild the tranny) or if I was ok with rebuilding the tranny I would drive it around normally until it shows the first signs of failure (hard shifts, slipping, slow shifts) and hope it doesn't fail catastrophically first (Zero drive or reverse, banging, crunching, grinding, clacking, engaging the park pawl at 35mph, poking holes in the case)

 

Well, I'm not sure if its the first flush, because i bought it used at 78300 miles (i got the flush at 91000). it actually might be the first flush.

i'm not sure exactly how slippage or roughing would feel (yes, I'm a car-novice) so i can't tell you if that is happening.

from my limited car knowledge, it seems to be running pretty good, but what do i know...there may be a horrible cancer lurking within.

t-max

 

drop the pan and clean the magnets, if it has lot of metal ur tranny is ****ed, liek when i had my 98 altima i had 120k before i did a flush but the tranny ****ed over an di put in a chemical that restores hydraulic pressure to the tranny, now its runnin good and shifts well too

 

slipping occurs when the rpms climb but the speed does not. if that was the first work on the tranny at 91k then i wouldnt doubt there were shavings and also that the fluid was burned. nissan says every 60k for tranny fluid but i try to do mine about every 30k. much cheaper for a flush or drain and refill than a tranny.

 

In that case, there is no slipping. My rpms go up with my speed.

You know what, they're also recommending all these other flushes... like radiator flush, power steering flush, "cleaning the oil compartment", fuel filter cleaning/flush. Each of these costs ~$90!!
I don't know if all of them are worth it!

 

They are all absolutely necessary (for them to make their next rent payment... )

 

youve got to have good fluids in the car if you want it run right. if the coolant is brownish or discolored from a brighter green then i would think about having that done. 90 bucks is too high, my dealership only charged me 59 to flush it. if the fuel filter has not been replaced then that can lead to stalling and poor gas mileage if it really gets clogged. dont have them clean the fuel filter, just have it replaced. power steering is more borderline. if it has never been changed before then i would think about if you can swing it. 90 bucks is too high to pay so i would shop around.

 

For the love of your car, look in yourpan. When i bought my '95 there was a clump of oily metal about the size of a golfball in there. Atleast i got a cheap T-5 to replace it, but it was expensive enough for me.

 

whats a T-5

when is a flush required to do
is doing a drain just as good?

i dont know when my fluid was last flushed so im gonna go to jiffy lube tommorow and have them do a complete flush and fill it with amsoil syntectic tranny fluid that i purchased, hopefully i dont find and metal shavings

 

Do you all have automatic transmission? I was told that manual transmissions don't require flushing. But I think I'm going to do this anyway and use Amsoil on it as well.

 

manual tranny dont require flush cuz when u drain it all the fluid comes out

 

Would it be possible then to replace the tranny fluid with Amsoil. I figured that synthetic oil lasts way longer than conventional and this would definitely increase the transmissions life. Plus help it a lot more during really hot summer months. BTW, has anyone here added a transmission cooler? If so, what brand is it and where can I get one?

 

whether you are auto or manual you can do a drain and refill on it. the problem with autos is that half of the fluid stays in the torque converter after a drain. you will get around 4.5 quarts out of draining an auto. you can use just about any brand of synthetic trans. oil you want. i take it you are auto since you are asking a tranny cooler. b&m, hayden and summit are a few off the top of my head. you could pick up a hayden at advance auto but make sure you get one of the smaller models for fitment reasons.

 

Actually mine is a 5 speed. I thought you can use a tranny cooler on auto or manual.

 

i guess its possible but you dont really need it. manual transmission run cooler than autos do. i would just save the money for an oil cooler.

 

"cleaning the oil compartment", thats a new one.

 

Hi, what do you mean when you say a tranny flush? Is that just dropping the fluid or is there a process to this?

Thx

 

flush is when you pay someone to hook it up to a machine and it sucks the old fluid out while replacing it with the new trans oil. when you undo the drain plug, its just called a drain and refill.

 

ok thanks. i never got that done before. i'll look into it.