'99 Maxima with 187k miles. Bone stock. AFAIK the tranny fluid has never been flushed or changed. I've owned it for 7 years. Fluid is dark, definitely not red. Tranny seems to shift fine except sometimes taking off from a standing start it just doesn't feel right. Not sure how to describe it. I'll have to take it for a spin and report back. Car isn't driven much anymore as I'm retired now. Should I flush the whole system or remove the pan and replace fluid, filter and gasket or just leave it alone? It's a great car that's only had minor issues with wear items since I've owned it. Would like to keep it functioning for as long as I can. Thanks in advance!

 

Do what you want but my recommendation is to move in a phased approach ...

Drain your trans. Just drain the pan. Remove the drain plug and drain it. You’ll get almost exactly 4 qts.

There is no filter. A strainer is present but there’s no filter to be changed.

If the pan gasket isn’t leaking or seeping, you’re good to go.

Refill with a high quality Dex/Merc fluid.

Drive the car for 100 to 200 miles.

Then do it all again ... drain and refill.

Complete this process 3 times.

Don’t do the flush. Just do and repeat the drain and fill process.

 

Flip a coin!

For every person that figured it's better to finally change it rather than frying the transmission, half regret it.

New Transmission fluid sounds like a no brainer, but after that many miles, it can sometimes bring failure faster. New fluid means new detergents and so on. Half the time, that works against logical thinking.

I have been burned doing exactly this and I've been glad I did it too. LOL

Whatever your luck history when following your gut...... Apply accordingly!

How's that for mechanic talk?

I did the recommended servicings and an extra needing new pan gasket on my 99. It still failed at 166K It was a major rebuild. Expensive too.

Good luck!

 

I've noticed, when the car is cold and I take off from a standing start the trans slips just a little and then grabs however, it shifts into 2nd and 3rd just fine when cold. When the car is up to temp, there's no slippage at all. I'm gonna take Turbobink's suggestion and do it in phases. I'm also going to use Nissan's Matic-D trans fluid. The Nissan dealer says they don't sell it anymore but you can get it on Ebay.

 

Amazon also.

 

Thanks! Great time to use my Amazon $25 gift card I got for Xmas!

 

Best of Luck!