when i went in for an oil change last week, the dealer said it was time to have my transmission serviced... i have a 96 with 111K miles on it... i tried search but couldnt find much, so i was wondering if any one can tell me what is done during this service.. and if it is possible for me to do this job myself fairly easily?? any help would be appreciated..

probably the typical fluid flush and filter change.

they want to put OEM fluid in it after a good flush. they dont actually open it up or doing anything significant.

is it possobile for me to do this work myself?? is there a drain plug to easily drain the fluid?? because it seems like i dont need the dealership to do this.. thanks

it is easy but it is much more work than just the drain plug. find a haynes manual, or search. don't go to the dealer!

Dealers around here do B&G flush. pretty good flush system in my opinion. For $80 which seems reasonable to me.

Many places do trans fluid changes. They may do it one of a couple ways. Depending on what a dealer charges and what they do might not be bad if you don't want to bother with it yourself. Jiffy Lube, for example, doesn't drop the pan. They do, however, hook up and flush all the fluid out. Pepboys for example will drop the pan and change the gasket.

I need to get mine done soon. There's a slight leak, so I need to have the pan dropped and the gasket replaced. I don't have the time to do it myself right now so I priced out taking it somewhere. Pep Boys wants $120 for their standard trans service (dropping the pan and replacing the gasket and filter where applicable), I'd have to bring the bolts if I want new ones in. (Technically your supposed to since their "self-sealing".) The Nissan dealer near my office will do it for basically $90 (drop the pan, change the gasket). In this case the dealer has a better price than the others. So it pays to call around first. Jiffy Lube is $99 but they don't drop the pan and change the gasket so I can't take it there, not that I'd want to unless my gasket wasn't leaking and I wanted a "total flush".

If you do it yourself, The gasket should be around $20 and the bolts are just under a $1 and there's 21 of them. Get a manual to be safe if you want to do it. Hopes this gives you a little more insight.

i suggest for anyone doing it for the first time, get a haynes or chilton manual, and make sure you're well aware of whats involved before you start taking stuff apart

This is easier than putting on clear corners. Take off your trans fluid return line (do a search to for installing a tranny cooler to find pictures of this, or look in a Hanes manual.) I think it's a line that comes off the bottom of your radiator to your transmission, disconnect the line at the transmission (I think this is correct but it may not be, I have a transcooler so I just disconnect the return line on it, so just make sure, some other members might come in and confirm or deny this.)

Buy 10 quarts of synthetic trans fluid, and I would reccomend a gas funnel (oil funnels are usually a little thick, you will be putting this into your trans dip stick, I am guessing you are an auto?)

Grab two empty milk jugs (one that is clean) and poor two quarts of new trans fluid into the clean one. Now put it next to the other milk jug and using a marker, mark where two quarts is on it.

Now put your trans return line into the other milk jug (the one you just marked) and start the car. Trans fluid will come rushing out of your return line, have a friend watch it and when it gets near the 2 quart mark turn the engine off, even after you turn the engine off it will still circulate a little of the trans fluid out (about 2 seconds, after it has stopped circulating no more trans fluid will come out.)

Now with the clean milk jug with two quarts of clean trans fluid, put the gas funnel into your trans dipstick and poor in the 2 quarts.

You can poor the dirty two quarts into an oil resovoir (like one you would use to drain your oil into) or into the clean jug (you will not need it again) or into the two empty trans fluid containers.

Now back to what you did the first time, put the trans return line in the other milk jug and start the car. Again transfluid will come rushing out, and again stop the car when it gets close to the 2 quart mark on the jug. Put in two new quarts of transfluid into the dipstick.

Repeat this process five times and you have flushed 10 quarts of fluid through your transmission. Recconect the line and your good to go.

I change my trans fluid every 30,000 miles in this manner, it is real easy.

maybe SOME of us find putting on clear corners particularly hard.... thanks for the little write up Street Reeper

I'd recommend the drop the pan, replace the gasket service. You don't get that much old fluid out-maybe 50 percent, but you can change the filter. If Nissan would do it for 90 bucks, I recommend that.

504,
I did a complete flush and fill past weekend.Its easy but time consuming.I also dropped the pan,cleaned the mesh filter and cleaned the dirty magnets.I have a photo of the tranny with the pan removed.It will give you an idea of what that thing looks like.I can e-mail it to you.Send me an e-mail at mdjayanth@hotmail.com.
I think its a good idea to clean the pan and magnets as there will be lots of particles on the magnet and if you don't clean them new particles can't attach to the magnet.There are some links in the "how to" section of this website which kinda gives you a general idea and photos of what pipe needs to be removed for draining the fluid and the method has already been clearly suggested.
In all cases it's really not worth the 100-120 $ people charge for the lousy job.
take care and get a manual its worth much more than 15 bucks thay charge you for it.I recommend Haynes!

Jay

I am guessing you replaced the tranny gasket, did you also replace the bolts?

I did not replace the gasket nor the bolts.The torque on these bolts is very less and if you're careful you can save the gasket.I saved the gasket and it was just fine.The bolts have some kind of sealant red in color and i just cleaned them and smeared some gasket maker on them.I still haven't checked if its leaking or not.
take care,
jay