Hey guys, my wife has 42,000 miles on her 03' SE and I was wondering for those of you with automatic trannies, at what mileage did you have your transmission fluid flushed or changed? Also, I have been told that it would be better to replace the brake pads with what came on it from the factory, but they are so much more expensive than other brake pads out there, what do you guys suggest? How many miles did you get before you had to replace your brake pads? Thanks alot.

I had my tranny flushed at 30K when I did the 30K service, per the service manual. I replaced my brade pads with stock because at 53K, my fronts had 50%, rears had 20%, and that's with city and highway driving (stop and go). To me that's pretty darn good for the stock pads to last that long, the car is 3.5 years old. So on stock pads, I have to replace them every 3.5 years, $100 bones ( I do the install myself), and $25 bucks to get all four rotors turned. That's pretty good in my opinion.

The rotors still had a lot of meat left on them too, at 53K. Just make sure you get any mechanic who works on your tires to hand torque them instead of using an impact gun, your rotors will last very long.

just my $2.25

Thanks alot man, we have 42,000 miles on the stock pads and they are still in good shape, I hope to get at least 50,000 miles out of them. As for the tranny, I check the fluid everytime I have the oil changed and it looks brand new, still red and showing no signs of burning. I know the manual says to change it every 30,000 miles or so, but that can get expensive, if done at the dealership anyway. My mechanic, who used to work for a Nissan dealer said that as long as I am not towing anything or racing the car, then I should be good with changing it every 50,000 miles or so. I hope so, I am planning on having the brakes and tranny serviced when it hits 50,000 miles.

It's possible that the fluid has been changed before you bought the car. As long as it has the right color and does not smell burnt, it should be replaced based on the service schedules. It's much cheaper to change the fluid than it is to buy a new tranny.

You are so right about that, it is cheaper than repalcing the tranny. I have no idea if it was ever changed before we bought the car or not though, but the fluid looks like new on the dipstick. No signs of burning or smells of burning.

I would rather change the ATF fluid before it gets too dark. In my case, the fluid looks fine on the dip stick, but it looks pretty dark when drained out. I drain and fill @30K and 45K, no flush yet.