Has anyone changed their manual tranny fluid? I have a 97 SE 5spd and am looking to change the fluid. How do you do this and what kind of fluid works best?

 

The best fluid to use is Redline. It takes just shy of 5 quarts. Only need to change it to Redline once. Basically there is a drain at the rear of the tranny (towards the back of the car, on the drivers side) remove bolt and let it drain for quite a while (it's really thick). Put drain pkug back in and go to front of the tranny and look for the bolt with a square 3/8" female end. That's the fill/check bolt. Fill er up with about 4.75 quarts. When it starts to run out of the fill/check bolt hole, it's full-put bolt back in and clean up.

 

Is it the same for an automatic?? Where can I get redline fluid? how much does it cost? and what kind do i need?

 

With the auto, you can either full flush (takes about 10-12 quarts) or drain and fill (4-5 quarts). I got my Redline D4 ATF from a local retailer, try

http://www.redlineoil.com

I got my D4 ATF for $8. Good luck.

 

Man, for the life of me, when I did it, I could not find the drain bolt!!! My Hayne's manual did not have a pic for it and just mentions that it is "on the bottom" of the transmission. Finally I used a pic on one of the FAQ's and the detailed text description of it's location on another FAQ and figured it out. BTW, I 'm pretty sure the fill bolt uses 1/2" male rachet (no socket attachment) because I had to go to Home Depot to pick up the (3/8"-1/2") adapter.

 

See:
http://integra.vtec.net/geeser/megam...fluid_page.gif
http://vbxmaxima.8m.com/mtoil.html

The drain plug is horizontal, low on the transaxle case near the engine, and near the shifter boot. It is fairly small and looks like an ordinary bolt.

The fill plug is on the side of the transaxle housing nearest the front of the car. It is fairly large and has a square recess. The tool to remove it is an ordinary 1/2-inch ratchet wrench, with no socket fitted.

Remove the fill plug first, and then the drain plug. That will eliminate the risk of draining the old lube and then discovering you can't install new lube because the fill plug is too tight. It will also help the gear lube to drain faster.

Observe the color of the old lube as it pours out. It should be brown or black. If it is shiny and silvery, that is cause for concern. That silvery color is thousands of tiny metal particles which have flaked off internal transaxle parts such as bearings.

Install and tighten the drain plug before installing the new lube. (Don't laugh, plenty of people have forgotten to do this and wound up with a large puddle of new lube on the garage floor.) You may find it convenient to install the new lube with a funnel and a short length of plastic tubing fitted to the funnel spout. Position the funnel in the engine compartment, near the battery. Route the plastic tubing into the fill port. Add gear lube until it begins to overflow. Nissan recommends API GL-4 SAE 80W-90 gear lube. The capacity of the 5-speed is 4.5 - 4.8 liters. Do not use API GL-5 gear lube.