I just called a Car-X with a flush machine and they wanted to charge me 110 bucks and told me I needed to supply 20 quarts of synthetic fluid. That would be one pricy tranny flush. Sounds to me like this guy is trying to take me for a ride. I thought having 12-15 quarts would be plenty of extra. What do you guys think? Is this a fair price? Also, is it cost effective. I think for that price it would be better to just flush the system with standard ATF and then use the drain and refill method every few months to keep things clean. I really want to go to synthetic, but unfortunetly I don't have a money tree growing in my backyard where I can just go a and pluck a few hundreds.

BTW, sorry. I should have posted this in the general forum, but I didn't realize it until after I submmitted the thread.

 

What year is your car and how many miles?
When was or has there ever been a tranny service done?

If your cars tranny has been maintained well, the drain & refill a few times will probably be just fine for you. I converted my 99 to synthetic that way. I drained and refilled it, drove it for a few miles, came back and did the drain and refill again. That was at 30K. Now I'm at 48K and I'm planning on doing just a simple drain and reill again. I think the fluid is all synthetic by now and my tranny shifts great.

And BTW - You do feel a slight improvement in the way the tranny shifts with synthetic fluid.

 

20 quarts is too much...but, this is a process that (essentially) needs a machine to do...I know that this is a tough project to do yourself.

my $0.02.

FLO_BOY

 

I paid about $80 and didn't have to supply any fluid at a place I went to; it's called Monkey Wrench and they were located in Bronx, NY.

And, you are abosolutely right, there is NO need to use 20 quarts of fluid to flush a 10 quart capacity system.

 

Most shops do not use synthetic so with the ATF, the shop will ask anywhere from 10 - 20 quarts for the machine to flush and re-fill if you want to switch to synthetic.

I suggest you do a regular flush/fill (you don't need to bring in fluid, and $80 sounds about right - you might save some if you get coupons in the mail).

Then, do a couple of drain & fills like what njmaxseltd said.

The shop asking you to bring in the fluid sounds correct, the amount seems a bit high unless they're charging you for the fluid swap in the machine. Ask them how much a regular flush is - anything higher than $80 & you take your money elsewhere.

 

Thanks for the input everyone. To answer some of your questions my car is at 67,xxx miles. It is a 98 and was last serviced by a nissan dealer at 30,000 miles. Flush or drain and fill I don't know. I live in MN and the regular price for a flush was 110 bucks. The guys said he would knock off a few bucks, leaving with the impression he would know off around 20 bucks or so. I wish I owned a flush machine. I hate the thought of anyone working on my car. Knowing I am getting had is even worse. I'll needt o think about what I want to do for a while on this one.

 

I did the Jiffy Lube T-Tech and it was at least 12 quarts - can't remember... I could see the old ATF coming out and and new coming in (clear hoses) and the old side ran clean for quite a while before it was finished... Regular price is $79 - ask manager to do it for $69 - the guy at mine offered that without my asking...

 

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....t=transmission

Check this thread, you can do it easily yourself all in one shot. I used 10 litres.

Jim

 

Thx. Jime. I previousle read that thread. I was aware of that method, but I fear messing something up. I remeber a similar threading saying you should add fluid as the old is draining out. Is it safe to drain 1/2 a gallon out and then add 1/2 a gallon after the drain. I would think that could possibly result in air pockets. I am not too familiar with all the hose locations on the maxima so that is a blind guess. Also, when you add the new fluid using this method do you add it to the dipstick? I am confused on how the fluid is cycling through the transmission system. If someone could clarify the flow through the various transmission parts it would greatly clarify to me why or why not this method would work and any drawbacks to using it.

 

Fresh fluid should be poured into the dipstick. I'm with you about having reservations about using that method. It sounds great in theory, but I'd probably screw it up. I prefer the drain and fill 3-4 times.

 

It works great in practice too. But if you don't feel comfortable doing it I am not going to try and talk you into it. The only thing about the drain and fill is that you are mixing old with new and end up with some kind of conglomeration in between. Taking it out 2 litres at a time does not mix old with new and still leaves an adequate level in the sump. Heck you could even do it 1 litre at a time if you wanted to. I went from dino to synthetic and I did not want to do a drain and fill and mix my expensive stuff with old dino oil.

 

Yeah, I hear you. The drain and fill is not as good, but it's okay. I would be more willing to try the self-flush method if it were my car, but the auto I usually work on belongs to my sister and I can't really experiment with it. I don't think that car is long for this world anyway

 

I've always been fascinated with How Stuff Works

It's not much but it's something to start with.

 

Excellent Post!

 

I think flushing the transmission is one of the most important things you can do to preserve the car for the long run, especially in an automatic. Most people just simply ignore transmission maintenance - big mistake! Transmission fluid is the life of an auto tranny and any fluid exchange at all will be helpful. You can do a full exchange (ie., a flush) at home without special equipment, but if you're not careful it can be messy, and you have to be able to dispose of the old fluid responsibly. If you guys are interested I can post how I do it.

 

TheNip73, where are you? I'm in Bloomington. I work for Clore Automotive (formerly Century Mfg) we make the T-Tech machine found at many Jiffy Lube stores. Maybe I could give you a demo.

 

I will send you a private message later tonight or tomorrow.

 

Can you please post how to do this ?
Thanks ahead.

 

That was on the first page of this thread. Look under one of Jime's posts, and click on the link.

 

That's right. I'll just add that you do need to identify which hose sends fluid out of the tranny to the cooler and which hose returns the fluid. You can do this by ? looking in a nissan service manual (I've got a haynes - not helpful) or when the car is cool, such as first thing in the morning, start up the engine and let it idle while you touch both hoses - the one that warms up first/more will be the fluid out hose (effect is more pronounced if someone revs the engine while you touch.) Drain your transmission fluid from this hose. You can attach a length of clear vinyl hose with a hose-hose connector(both cheap at Home Depot) so that you can move your jug to where you can see it when you start the engine in case you don't have a helper.

 

I had the Jiffy Lube T-tech service done and supplied 12 quarts of my own Redline D4 ATF fluid for the machine. Yes, the transmission holds 10 quarts, but the machine needs 12 quarts to do a complete flush. About 20 quarts...who knows maybe that machine needs that much fluid for a complete flush.