I'm looking at the FSM and found the drain plug but I have no idea where the fill hole is at. I'm looking at where the manual is saying but I cant see what its tallking about. Anyone have a write up for this?

 

it looks like this (picture is generic, not of a maxima transmission), and it's on the front of the tranny near where the front transmission mount bolts onto it.

 

Yep just like Caped's picture. It's right in there where the transmission mount attaches to the transmission so it's difficult to access. I always use a ratchet with a short extension to remove the plug.

To fill it is kind of a pain. I got a funnel and a couple of short sections of rubber hose that fit into each other that allowed me to attach a 2-3 foot section of clear tubing to it (you can get this at Home Depot etc). If you have a funnel that wedges right into your tubing then you don't need the little rubber hoses obviously. Or you could tape it. Anyway this allows me to balance the funnel up around the battery area and route the tubing down into the fill hole.

 

awesome! thanks guys!

 

your new best friend.

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/acc...er=557785_0_0_

 

You can buy a pump that screws onto oil container and pump in. Goes a lot faster and less mess. Used a lot on rear ends.

 

how about one of these? doesn't screw in, but similar idea.



http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/de...+transfer+pump

 

That works quite well. The screw in hand (pause) pump gets tiring after a while.

You do lose about 1/2 to 1/4 quart from the hose and spilling.

 

i know some people fill the trans from the shifter too

 

I filled from the speed sensor - it is what was suggested and seemed to work fine.

It concerns me now, discovering that there is conflicting information confirming the existence of a legitimate filler hole.

VG30 has the same tranny as the VE30, no? Why the difference, did I miss something? Ruh roh!

 

Not the same tranny no but same basic case design. Filling from the speed sensor is fine too though

 

Okay good, thanks for the clarification, I was worried all this time I had been running around with a quite underfilled tranny!

 

filling through the VSS hole is easier, but less accurate. The nominal "fill point" is a hair below the point where fluid leaks out of the filler hole when the car is level. By filling through the filler hole, you just fill until you can't anymore, and you're done. Filling thru the VSS hole and you might overshoot it.

the VG and VE trannies are ALMOST the same, but on the VE unit the driver side oil seal is much bigger and there's more room in the diff area, due to the VLSD taking up more space.

 

werd. I'm using that on the pathfinder, since it's up off the ground and the hole is next to the tunnel so no room for the actual bottle. I figure I'll waste less fluid filling it from underneath b/c i'll be able to stop the instant it's full, instead of pouring it in blindly thru a hose up top and having to listen for new fluid hitting the catch pan.... and still lose whatever's left in the tube & funnel at the time due to having no way to stop it.

 

So I can't get the dam drain plug to come off!! Its starting to strip the head of the bolt and I'm afraid to mess it up and be stuck, I already tried pb blaster with no luck. Does anyone have any tips to removing a bolt? Its screwed on there really tight!!

 

the front surfaces of socket extensions tend to be a bit roundish. Do you have anything more squared-off that would fit the hole better? Maybe a piece of square steel stock from Home Depot's welding materials aisle, and some channel locks? I assume their 1/2-inch is outside diameter...

http://www.homedepot.com/p/1-2-in-x-...5#.UXsPKoJAt8s



This guy looks to have a pretty flat nose. http://www.autozone.com/autozone/acc...er=947314_0_0_



You might even be able to jam feeler gauges in beside the extension, to try and take up the slack. The problem with extensions is that the ball tries to push the extension back out over the lip so if you use feeler gauges try putting them on the ball side to prevent it from trying to push over the lip.


Thing it's really a 13mm plug... which is SLIGHTLY bigger than 1/2" (which is 12.7mm) so it might have just enough clerance to cause trouble in that 0.3mm

Something like this might work better BUT might require removing the mount first http://ultimatetoolco.com/13mm

 

better yet, get this, and use the 13mm square http://www.harborfreight.com/12-piec...set-94961.html




I'm glad you made me look into this, cuz I have a transmission fluid change of my own to do, and I didn't know I could get a 13mm square tool locally.

 

A little heat...so drive around it bit and heat up the transmission. Once its warmed up it MIGHT come out easier. Buy a new plug before hand because you don't want that back in there.

 

Is there any other way to drain the tranny? I'm afraid to keep trying to take off the bolt because it keeps slipping from how stuck it is, there's a bunch of other bolts I can see but I wanna know if any of those can drain the oil?

 

the one by the shifter thing? that's the drain plug. If you have to, just get it off once, and replace it with a new one, if you mean to say that the bolt itself is begging to be stripped.

 

That's the thing I don't know what else to use, my wrench keeps stripping the head and I'm afraid to really round off the bolt and never be able to remove which might already have happened, that's why o wanna know if there's any other bolts I can remove to drain the oil

 

best to use a big breaker bar to start with before the bolts starts getting stripped. only other way you can maybe change the fluid is get a big medical syringe (yes, a new one, not a used one. dont want da aidz yo) and stick a rubber hose on it about a couple feet long. then, remove the fill plug, stick the hose as far as you can go down in the tranny, suck fluid out with the syringe, and repeat until its empty. should work unless the hose gets blocked by gears etc

takes a while but might be your only option, on my truck nobody changed the diff fluid ever i think and even with a breaker bar the bolt was just gonna break or something. took the fill plug off and did the syringe way.

 

can you weld? weld an extension on it or any solid steel that's strong enough.

weld a nice bead around it fusing the extension to the plug. then before it cools off try and turning it.

the heat will expand the metal. the aluminum case will expand more than the steel plug. and with the extension welded on there...you'll get more leverage.