With my car approaching 90k miles soon, I'm thinking about replacing the fluid. When I got this car, it had 68k on it and I have no clue if the car had any drain and refill or flushes before. My question is, should I do several drain and refills? OR should I replace all of the fluid at the same time using the radiator cooler line method? OR should I drop the pan and take all of the fluid out that way? Also, would it be a risk to drop the pan and cleaning the magnets and changing the filter? I've been told that people experience problems when they do flushes and/or change the filter, cleaning the magnets, etc. What route go you guys recommend?

 

I would just flush the tranny using the cooler line method.

 

I'm assuming you are you talking about the transmission fluid. Get it flushed since you don't know the history of the car. Personally I would take it somewhere where they have a machine to do it. Get the pan dropped and cleaned. Make sure they put on a new gasket when the put the pan back together.

 

I assume you want to DIY. However, if I were you I would have the dealership do it because the fact you are uncertain if the trans was ever flushed before. That way you just drain and refill every 10-15K thereafter and won't have to worry about dropping the pan and cleaning the magnets. That's just me.

Try looking at the back page if you're having trouble searching. There's bound to be a post about transmissions within the last couple of days.

 

My ATF fluid was really dirty when I bought the car but still smelled like ATF is supposed to smell. I did a drain and fill and another one a week later. Since then, the shifting has noticably improved as the fresh fluid with fresh detergent cleans all the passages. Probably do another one when it warms up a bit, then do them every 20,000 miles or so from then on.

 

follow my sig if you want to do the flush dropping the pan

 

+1 on tranny flush via dropping the pan.

 

moving to the appropriate section...

 

flush it,

 

im paranoid and broke. i dont have 2k to buy a new tranny if the flush happens to move some deposits into the wrong place.

my car only got 45k on the engine, but im going to do a series of drain/refills with magnet cleaning. after 3 or 4 flushes the fluid is pretty much all new (93%)

 

SO you guyes recommend dropping the pan, cleanign the magnets and the screen then repalce the fluid by using the Radiator line method?

 

Just to be safe the auto trannies can be flakey.

If drop the pan and change the filter I would ONLY use an OEM nissan filter.

Don't buy an Autozone filter it can screw with the line pressure of the transmission due to the aftermarket tranny filter not having the same flow chacteristics as the OEM transmission filter was designed to have by nissan.

 

what are the torque specs on the 21 bolts holding the pan up?

any other torque specs i need to know for dropping the pan and cleaning the magnet?

can i just use CRC brake cleaner on the screen? any special way i should clean that?

 

It is well worth it, not difficult and not expensive either.

I pulled the return line; drianed some/filled some until the fluid started to run nice and pink. Since then just pulling the drian plug and refill each spring. My tranny shifts like brand new and I have 103k; of course I have a vb mod so that helps.

 

I would suggest an easy flush method. Drain and refill the tranny, and two weeks later repeat.

 

Torque for the pan bolts is 7 fl-lb. Drain and fill every 15K miles is good enough.