I've never heard of anyone using a compressor to get the fluid out of an automatic transmission. I wouldn't recommend that anyone try to do that... especially someone who isn't technically savvy.

Typically, a home mechanic would drain the ATF out of the pan.... refill it, drive for a little bit, and them maybe drain and refill the pan again. That should safely get about 60-70% of the old fluid out of the system without adding any risk of screwing up one of the most expensive components in the vehicle.

 

I know the capacity for the tranny is huge but that is pretty pricey.

 

man that can get pretty pricey to drain and fill twice

 

i should do the flush..
just over 60k

 

what is the full capacity of the transmission

 

^ abit under 12 quarts, Going to need 14 quarts or so to do a flush.

 

wow do they charge 100 dollares for an oil change too...?

 

When I used to go, oil changes at Nissan were $15 for me. Just gotta bring my own oil. For a drain and refill it was 69.99 w/o the matic-s. I bought that separately.

 

They want you to pay 380 to open a cap and drain fluid out????? And then 280 to put the fluid back in and close the cap?????????
There has to be more to this story. pleaseeeeee let there be more to this story.

 

There's a lot more involved in changing the fluid on an automatic transmission than draining it and refilling it. At any given point, only about 1/3 to 1/2 of the AT fluid is sitting in the transmission sump pan. The rest of it is inside all the passageways for the transmission and inside the torque converter. If you just drain it and refill, you're doing an incomplete job in regards to getting all the old fluid out and the new stuff in, because you're only going to get the stuff out that was sitting in the pan.

Think about it in terms of taking a bath. If you did that, it would be like you preparing to take a bath.... but using a tub that someone else just took a bath in(full of dirty water), and only draining the tub halfway and filling the rest back up with clean water.... you're basically taking a bath in dirty water.... or in the case of your transmission, diluting the already dirty fluid with some new clean fluid, but it's still going to be mostly pretty dirty once it all mixes together.

That being said..... I don't take baths.. showers only!

 

^ LOL touche sir touche. well said

 

Leaglue Nissan in Louisiana where I go is $169 for the flush and refill. Those guys are trying to rip you off.

 

I'm a total noob at this and about to perform this at home.

So I drain the old fluid out, pour in 12 qts of the new fluid. Drive around for a bit (how long is a bit?) then drain it again. The thing is do I pour in the the fluid that I just mixed with the old fluids? That's where I'm not understanding. Because I'm pretty sure you don't buy 24qts of this stuff to do a flush.

I'm assuming that once that new fluid mixes with the old, the 12 qts I just poured in will be useless and won't exactly be considered 'new fluids' anymore?

 

If you'll check your service manuals I believe Nissan requires a drain/fill every 30K miles and does not recommend doing a flush unless you're having trans shifting issues or you've got 100K miles on your clock. J-Matic is what came in our 5AT but Nissan has changed to S-Matic which is virtually the same stuff with just a letter change according to Nissan's parts dept. no problem intermingling the two.... Dirty bath water....what? lol
Gary

 

Thanks for the tip Gary! I guess I'll just be doing the drain/fill instead.

Also, since it seems as though I'll be doing the drain/fill instead, I guess it is better to stick with what's already in the car than to mix OE and then some aftermarket fluid like Redline?