How on earth do you check the tranny fluid? I know it's supposed to be within a certain mark on the dipstick but I can never get a reading any instructions or write ups on how to check it?

 

Instructions should be in the car manual. If you don't have that - I can look it up in mine - I can't remember off-hand whether you are supposed to keep the gear selector in P or N....

 

warm the transmission up by driving it for at least 10 minutes (or just a couplem minutes after your car warms up). Park on a level surface. Move the gear selector slowly through each gear (P, N, R, D, 2, 1) and back to park. Pull the dipstick out with the engine running and clean it off. Stick the dipstick back in and pull it out. Take your reading. Should be close to the full mark on HOT. If not, add a little bit of tranny fluid at a time until it gets there.

 

Automatic transmission fluid should be pinkish in color. If it looks grey or brown, or has a burnt smell to it, that's bad. I'm pretty sure the service manual calls for the ATF to be changed every 30,000 miles in our cars; I change mine every 15,000 because I have 195,000 miles on the original transmission and the college budget doesn't allow for tranny rebuilds, and I don't have the space to do a 5 speed swap.

Anyway if it looks or smells bad, change it right away. Make sure you have the entire transmission and torque converter backflushed by someone who has the right equipment to do so.

 

My readings reach the curve in the dipstick, the curve right above the hot mark, it actually reaches until the end of the curve.

 

Maybe thats the reason you have tranny problems........

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=468107

 

So where should the reading be at? When I got the VB replaced, they only added I believe 5 quarts tops maybe 6 again I'm guessing.

 

Car running for 15 minutes, checked dipstick 4 times after cycling thru all the gears a few times. The level on the C mark is PERFECT. I don't know how the hell I said it was by the curve. It is dead on. On the HOT mark it is maybe 3 MM below the top of the H mark, but I haven't driven her around yet.

 

Drove her around for about 40 minutes or so.

Checked fluid level again. Car parked on flat surface, cycled thru all the gears.

Checked dipstick 3-4 times, on the HOT side the fluid reaches over the letter T by about 4-5 MM. It ends RIGHT where the curve in the dipstick starts to begin. Flipped over on Cold side same reading. So after driving around in conclusion the fluid level is higher, maybe substantially higher, than the car idling for 15-20 minutes.

 

When the car is at idle, the tranny isn't doing anything. Just pumping some fluid. It's not working, nothing is heating up, nothing is really expanding, the fluid level wount rise much.

Drive the car around and your tranny gets hot. Things start to expand and the fluid level will rise.

Thats why you have a HOT and COLD mark on your dip stick. The tranny level is most accurately checked when the tranny is HOT. That means after it's been driven around for a while, not simply after your engine has been at idle.

 

Started up car up this morning, warmed her up for a good 5-6 minutes. Drove around maybe 2 miles round trip. Made sure the fluid was hot enough so that the TC was locking, it was. Checked fluid level on flat surface after cycling thru all the gears, the level on the HOT side was PERFECT, reached right up to the scribed markings on the dipstick, same level on the cold side. Rechecked readings 3 times or so, same exact readings each and everytime.

Last night I drove the car around for maybe 45 minutes, I wasn't driving normally, took it up to redline a few times etc thinking the fluid needed to be around more. When I checked the readings at that point the fluid level DID reach the start of the curve on the dipstick. So like was mentioned earlier it was maybe a good 4-5 MM ABOVE the letter T on the HOT side.

 

According to the Haynes Manual it says if you drive the car for a while at high speeds, (which I did last night which caused the higher reading), you need to let the car cool down for 30 minutes before checking fluid level.