I recently went into my Nissan Dealership to have them do the 15k service. I ended up just having them do the oil change for me (some 15k service huh?).. Anyway, the service manager tried to talk me into having them do the scheduled "minor automatic transmission maintenance." From what I gathered from the spiel, the maintenance involves only changing the transmission fluid. In fact, he highly recommended that I do it (ie. basically hand him $70 more). According to him, Maxima's don't have any kind of filter for the tranny fluids, so you have an inherent buildup of metal shrapnel at the bottom. And I was like "At 15k?" and he was like "Yup"...

Now of course, I didn't take this at face value, even though I have generally been satisfied with my Nissan Service experience.

My question is, How credible is this story? Should I really be worrying about changing my tranny fluid at only 15k miles? I'd venture an edumacated guess that this is completely bogus, but I thought I should ask some of the experts here what they thought..
(ie. when's the first time you should really have your automatic transmission fluid changed.)


-Tom Z.

PS. he said don't worry about the fuel filter when I asked him about it. Which I took to mean that it wasn't serviceable like UMD said. Someone here mentioned that they got charged for a fuel filter change (I found it when I did a search), which is what brought up the question in the first place. You might wanna look into the fact that your dealer is ripping you off....

 

tranny fluid doesnt need to be changed untill 30K

it will not hurt to change it sooner but its not necessary (unless the fluid is burnt, check the dipstick)

He was just pushing for work seems like. YOu could easily change it yourself. Pull the drainplug underneath and add some new fluid. For about $10 not $70 (unless you go synthetic). Thats one hell of an expensive oil change.

 

It's just a drainplug?? No pans, and tomfoolery like that??!?!


bah, perhaps I should take a look underneath my car once in a while...


-Tom Z.

 

on my 2001 there is a large drain plug.

you should remove the pan and clean out any metal particles. If you want to be safe at 15K I would just unscrew the plug and refil, especially if the filter is not removable.

 

Actually, it might not just be a drain. A regular drain only replaces about 1/2 of the fluids. You need a pump to replace ALL of the fluids (stuck in torque convertor, etc...) I change mine at 15K (Maxima autos seem pretty weak) as cheap insurance. Check with the dealer to see if he has this pump and if he doesn't, call around different places to find one. If your tranny fluid looks find then I wouldn't worry about it till around 30k.

 

yep the drain will replace about 1/2 your fluid unless you powerflush out the entire system. For $70 thats not to bad but my dealer wanted $150 for a powerflush. At 15K I think that is a waste of money.

As you said just drain and replace if you are worried about the tranny. Save the expensive flush for 30K or 60K.

Unless you want to flush yourself, but that is a pain (can be messy). (Disconnect the tranny cooler and run the engine to release the fluid while you add more)

 

$150!! that is expensive. The dealers here do it for $75

 

I agree.... a full flush should not be more than $80 or so....

 

Does anyone know how many bottles of the ATF Redline Syntec I would need for my '01 Auto? This is for a complete flush/refill...

 

I wuz just about to ask the same thing.

I will check back. :-)

 

9 quarts. i just had mine power flushed and i watched the fluid exchange, red in and black stuff out. almost on cue, right at 9 quarts of the red stuff in, the red stuff came out the expulsion end. the guy doing mine actually went a full 12 quarts of new fluid with the first three being just to clean stuff out. very refreshing.

btw, i think they were quarts, may be liters

 

If you use amsoil atf or redline at this time and only drain and refill you'd be fine if at the next drain and refill use amsoil or redline again and drain and refill you'll be fine at another 15k you'd be fine, however if you wanted to be cautious than every 6months do a drain and refill until you have replaced 9qt capacity mark at that time you can wait every 60k to do it again paying for the flush is a waste in that you can do a drain and refill any time with more frequecy and still achieve the needed results