I changed my transmission oil this afternoon with MT-90. Now 3rd and 4th
take no effort to take out of gear. The problem is that 4th pops out
of gear. It did it 4 times and on 10-mile drive.

Is this to be expected changing for dino to synthetic?

BTW, the transmission only took 3 quarts.

Thanks for the help

 

My 5-speed took 4.5qts... I haven't noticed any such problems.

 

Yeah dood, 4.5 quarts. Check your fluid level!!
Did you change it on level ground? Where are you checking level? where did you fill from?

 

I took it to a shop. Watched them do it. It was on level ground, except they
filled from under the car, not using a funnel. I went back and asked, he said
it filled up to the fill plug.

 

I'm no expert, but that sounds supsicious.
Every other 2K takes 4.5 quarts. Yours gets 3 and starts having issues? That raises a red flag.

I switched to redline mt-90 about 6 months ago. Things only improved for me. You can prolly pull into Jiffy Lube or the like and have them check the level. It's pretty easy to do.

Good luck.

 

This is not related to fluid level. Others have had this issue after changing fluid because they knocked something loose which causes the stick to slip out of gear. It's an easy fix, but I can't recall it offhand...

Search for "slip out gear fluid" and it should pop up in the results.

 

Wish search worked with more than one word.

Anyways, I checked the level and it was fine. Interesting post,
because the shop was whacking the wrench with a mallet to get the fill plug unscrewed.

 

Well the mystery is solved.

Turns out that the shop did not drain from the drain plug (which is at the lowest
part of the transmission, go figure ) Turns out they removed the fourth
gear Detention rod which is located further up on the tranny. This little sucker
holds a spring and check balll that 'notches' the gear in place. I can only hope
that the ball went down the drain with the old oil.

This explains why my tranny only took 3 quarts instead of 4.5.

Luckily the spring was still there, and I got my hands on another check ball
from a tranny shop. Popped the 4th deten rod out, put the ball back in, and
recylcled the oil.

Grr.. now I have a mixture of redline and the leftovers.



Hope this helps someone, now if you change your fluid at a shop, make
sure ******** uses the drain plug.

 

Good thing you found the problem.
I would make the shop buy you all new MT-90 for their mistake. I wouldn't let them put it in tho

 

Someone has to explain this to me. I thought a drain plug is removed, oil drained, fill plug is removed, new oil is put in. Are there other parts that are removed during a tranny oil change?

 

That's basically it. Except if you don't know which one is the drain
plug, you can mistakingly remove either 1st/2nd detent spring, 3rd/4th,
or 5th/Reverse.

Oil will still drain if you remove these, it's not the right way though.

 

For a more visual effect, they removed the 3rd & 4th shift bolt,
lost the little ball there, and replaced it with just the spring.

The drain plug is the big one near the bottom.

 

Yup, that's what I was looking for! You're not the first. And if you had access to the old fluid, you'd find the check ball in the oil pan - it typically flows out with the oil when you screw up and don't use the drain plug. Another guy had this issue and found the ball in the pan. He replaced it and all was well. It blows my mind a "professional" doesn't know which plug is the drain plug!

Glad to hear you're back up and running. Now tell 'em they owe you 4.5 qts. of Redline.

 

check ball should be in the oil drain after they drained the fluid. It can't fall inside the tranny cause the shift rod sits in right up against the check ball. I'm pretty familiar with the Maxima trannies as rebuild a few, and just rebuild mine not too long ago after my 4th gear exploded. The detent ***** are a pain in the *** to install. Good thing these trannies are fairly strong compared to other <cough 3.5L cough> trannies.